Cornwall is the local authority with the largest supply of short-term lets outside London. There are around 24,300 holiday let properties in Cornwall, which is up 30% on 2019. Statistics from the council tax base tell us that there are also approximately 13,140 second homes registered in Cornwall. That is nearly 5% of the total housing stock - nearly five times higher than the average across England.

There are around 27,000 families on the list waiting for social housing. But, we have only 10,302 council houses and 22,971 housing association homes in Cornwall and we also have 800 households in emergency or temporary accommodation. Lots of families have been evicted from their private rented homes with only 2 months’ notice without reason. This is something that the new Labour government’s recently introduced Renters’ Rights Bill will make impossible, but it has come too late for many families in Cornwall who have already lost their homes, and the private rented sector has all but collapsed.

The taxpayer has lost about £20 million per year as a result of the loophole allowing second homes to be registered as holiday lets for business rates purposes. As short term lets often fall under small business rates relief, they will pay neither council tax nor business rates. During Covid, approximately £170 million went to the owners of properties that were registered as businesses in pandemic business grants.

In Cornwall there has been a ‘First Homes Not Second Homes’ campaign for many years to restore the balance, and I suggested a toolkit of measures to the new Housing Minister:

*A licensing scheme obliging owners of short-term lets, including Airbnbs, to register for a fee for a three year period. We would then know how many and where they were and could make fire and safety checks mandatory.

*Closing the business rates/council tax loophole. It should not be possible to pay no council tax nor business rates on a property; it is just not fair.

*Cornwall Council has already voted to double the council tax on empty second homes and actually asked the Government if it can triple it. Given that the Council is Conservative-run, and that this decision was agreed on a unanimous, cross-party basis, it is symbolic of how severe the problem has become. If we were to implement that, the council would raise an extra £50 million!

*Create a planning use class for short-term holiday lets, so that owners need to actively apply for planning permission to change from “lived in” to “holidayed in”.

This toolkit could be given to local authorities who could decide how much or little to do, depending on how big or small a problem it is in their area.

Time has shown that the rebalancing of our housing market isn’t something that is going to happen on its own. We need the tools to do it.