Local councils should be given greater powers to control the second home and holiday let sector after figures show 29 homes are lost a day to this area, campaigners have said.
Analysis of local tax data by Generation Rent found England lost nearly 11,000 properties to the second home and holiday let sector in a year.
Some areas lost more than 2% of their housing stock between 2019 and 2022, leading to inflationary pressure on prices and rents.
The analysis shows that between 2021-22, the number of second homes in England increased by 3,556, to 256,913 and the number of holiday lets increased by 7,153, to 73,624 Over 2019-22, the number of holiday lets and second homes increased by 25,317.
Leicester saw the biggest loss of primary homes, losing the equivalent of 2.2% of the city’s 2020 housing stock. This was followed by Scarborough, South Hams in Devon, the London Borough of Southwark and Copeland in Cumbria, which all saw more than 1% of their housing stock move into the second homes and holiday lets sector over three years.
Dan Wilson Craw, deputy director of Generation Rent, said: 'The Government is beginning to recognise the need to intervene. However, it is not clear that planning changes are the answer given how limited their impact has been in London. The permanent nature of planning permission would also make properties designated as holiday lets disproportionately more valuable than other properties.
'Instead, councils should have the power to require holiday lets to have a time-limited licence, and cap their number where there is a severe shortage of homes. This would be a more flexible and responsive approach than using the planning system, and would be easier for councils to enforce.'
