A politician has called on Airbnb hosts in his local area to switch their properties to long-term rentals.

Isle of Wight councillor Michael Lilley says his area’s housing crisis has been worsened by a a glut of second homes, the withdrawal of houses from the rental sector to be marketed as short lets, and the costs of bringing materials to the island for new builds.

Lilley say the Isle of Wight council should follow the example of Cornwall in lobbying for government action to protect the Island from second homes, and he wants conversations with landlords, developers and housing associations to urge them to work with the council to solve the crisis and provide housing for future generations.

The number of houses the Isle of Wight council proposes to buy this year to provide temporary accommodation is just 25, although there are reported to be over 2,500 people on the council’s housing register.

A similar debate is underway on Anglesey where a Welsh National Plaid Cymru politicians claims long term tenants are being evicted so their properties can be used as short-term holiday lets. 

Rhun an Iorweth says rising numbers of evictions were in turn contributing to Anglesey’s “already lengthy” council house waiting list and in a debate in the Welsh Parliament he claimed there was a family evicted by one of their own family members: they wanted to stay nearby as they have children in the local school but they couldn’t find replacement rented accommodation, so have joined the council’s waiting list.

He has particularly criticised the Bodorgan Estate – he says its actions are “particularly worrying”.

In the Parliament he claimed: “Through historic privilege, the Bodorgan Estate is a very important landlord. In fact, they were perhaps our best known landlord when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stayed in one of their fqrmhouses during their time in Anglesey. The estate owns many houses, but I’ve spoken to tenants who say they have been told to leave so that their homes can be turned into holiday lets.

“Now, in Scotland, it was intensive grazing that led to the infamous Highland Clearances of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. On Anglesey, in the 21st century, it’s tourism, but the principle is the same. From the scale of what I’m hearing, I fear losing large swathes of permanent population.”