Former Liberal Democrat party leader and Lake District MP Tim Farron has met with bosses from Airbnb to challenge them on the damaging effect of short lets on the rental market.
He says local people and families have been evicted from their homes in the Lake District so that their landlord can turn it into a holiday let.
During the meeting, Farron urged Airbnb to publicly declare that it will not accept onto its books any properties where the landlord had made it available by getting rid of the local people or family who lived there under a Section 21 eviction.
Farron says there has been a 32 per cent increase in the number of holiday lets in his South Lakeland constituency over the past year.
He told Airbnb that this sharp rise in holiday lets is actually hurting the tourist economy, with the shortage of homes exacerbating the current staffing crisis.
"I'm grateful for the opportunity to meet with Airbnb and I'm pleased they said they understood the problems that a surge in holiday lets is having for local families struggling to find a home” says the LibDem.
"However I remain deeply concerned that letting companies like Airbnb are doing nowhere near enough to discourage landlords who shamefully throw out their tenants so they can make more money letting out their property on the holiday market.
"While the government continues to drag its feet over taking the proper action that would stop this from happening, companies like Airbnb have the chance to do the morally right thing and say no to these landlords."
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Since when have MP's done the morally right thing?
Whose property is it?
MP, Tim, why not do your job in Parliament its Government interference that has driven many LL’s to switch to AirBnB & now you complain.
I believe LLs are switching from longer lets to shorter lets because of the risk with longer lets that you get stuck with a non-paying tenant that you can't evict & who trashes your property and then walks away.
Govt interference in the PRS, so unbalanced in favour of the tenant, is driving LLs out of the PRS. For the PRS to work well there has to be a balance between the needs of LLs and tenants. The interference of bodies like Shelter & Gen Rent is turning this into a crisis as decent LLs leave with no replacements in place so we now have spiralling rents & lack of housing with the main victims being decent tenants who are supposedly being supported by these organisation.
If Keir Starmer gets his way and social care costs are dumped on LLs things will deteriorate even more and very quickly!
If Farron is so concern why isn't he & his Party raising this in Parliament every day? Or is he just trying to win over a few local cobstituency votes by making a few noises.
To me its always Government interference & Policy’s that cause the problems, like bringing down Base lending Rates below 5% abolishing savers over night, what were they supposed to do with their money (buy property) ?, so any crisis was caused by Policy.
I’ll just turn back the clock briefly to see what happened as an example, Cleveley Crescent, W5, 1930 Semi & Terraced now sell for average £600k.
In 1996 it’s fair to say £100k was top average price for those (after that they make a jump). So it took 62 years to make £100k including building costs. Then only taken next 25 years to increase £500k more to 2021, it’s all a bit mad bring back savers instead of forcing everyone to put last penny into property over heating the market.
Sharecroppers! We are now dangerously near to the point when we are being mandated to what we do with our own properties. We are on the road to being forced to rent to the gov/local gov choice of tenants at a rate they decide under their rules whilst they wet their beak all along the line. Can someone more intelligent than me please confirm if being a landlord is aiming towards Indentured Servitude?
It isn't a top MP, it's Tim Farron!
Doesn't he realise airbnb are a holiday let company and are not catering to the general rental market. No wonder he is a failed MP!
Gordon Brown says Tim Farron isn’t a top MP hahahahaha sorry my friend I couldn’t resist
Isn't Air B&B a properly legal operation?
I thought we lived in fully Laissez Faire economy?
As much as I hate air bnb I infinitely prefer it to the scum we call politicians
They’ve sold us down the river to China as a country , destroying livelihoods , businesses and eventually lives
If there’s a hell they belong there
Dear Tim
Short answer : actions have consequences, chickens have come home to roost.
Long answer : loss of wear and tear allowance, Section 24, EICR, tenant fee ban, removal of S21 evictions during Covid, licensing, red tape, red tape and more red tape.
I'm sure that you've supported (certainly not opposed) these sustained attacks on the PRS. Trouble is Tim, the worst is yet to come. I'm sure, that wearing your lefty, green credentials, you're happy for the PRS to be mandated to reach an EPC C by 2025, and EPC B by 2030. This Tim, is really going to cause a queue of homelessness at the door of your constituency office. Stock up on sleeping bags and soup - you're going to need them!
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