EDM 507: Registration scheme for short-term lets and local communities

That this House recognises that, while short-term lets bring economic benefits and opportunities for tourism, they must be balanced with the need to maintain the integrity of local communities, particularly in coastal, rural, and tourist hotspot areas such as Devon; highlights the increasing pressure on local housing markets, where absentee landlords are making significant profits, and families may be priced out of their own communities due to the conversion of long-term rental properties into holiday lets; welcomes the Government's commitment, as outlined in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, to introduce a registration scheme for short-term lets as a means to mitigate these issues; calls for urgent and meaningful consultation on how the registration scheme will operate, ensuring that it effectively addresses the challenges of short-term letting, including limiting its negative impact on local housing stock, providing transparency, and holding landlords accountable to ensure that communities benefit from tourism and hospitality, while working to provide local residents with affordable homes; further calls for a wider review of the taxation system to ensure that it does not disproportionately incentivise short-term letting at the expense of long-term rental options for local residents; and urges the Government to introduce such a scheme without delay, in order to protect the interests of local communities and ensure that tourism benefits are shared fairly across the nation.