Oxford City Council has criticised the Government’s proposals to limit short-term lets arguing that they ‘fall a long way short of what's needed’.
Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Michael Gove announced on Monday that second-home owners will have to seek planning permission for future short-term lets.
Existing short-term lets are automatically entitled to permission.
Oxford City Council leader Susan Brown criticised the move describing it as ‘a classic case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.’
‘We've been asking Government for powers to regulate whole-property short lets for years. And while we welcome – finally – a new planning class to restrict more of them, how is it okay to ignore the many hundreds of homes now used as short lets and say they can carry on as they are?’ she said.
‘We want people to visit and stay in our amazing city. Oxford has so much to offer. But uncontrolled short lets are a blight on our communities, they deprive us of much-needed homes and deepen our affordability crisis.’
