Thousands of homes in central London may have been lost to Airbnb and other short let platforms, a Labour candidate claims.

Rachel Blake, Labour candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster in today’s General Election, says local councils should be given powers to decide how to tackle what she calls the Airbnb “problem”, including any caps on numbers given consent via the planning process.

In an interview with London business publication City AM, Blake says: “You can only go so far with enforcing what we’ve already got. There are cases of people renting their home privately and then subletting into Airbnb. 

“There are the powers in place for those landlords to take enforcement action on the tenants because the tenants are breaching their tenancy but they can’t at the moment because of the way that the courts are so clogged up. 

“We actually need there to be a requirement in planning, about whether or not a place should be a short-term let. That’s something I’ll be really campaigning for.”

Blake continues: “The way that the planning framework works at the moment is they’re making an assessment of housing need… it is also significant for our economy, how we cater for tourists here. I think there needs to be a holistic view about how we’re catering for that.”

City AM secured a response from an AirBnB spokesperson who says: “The supply and affordability of housing in London is primarily driven by a lack of new homes being built.

“The vast majority of London hosts rent one home for less than three nights a month, and two thirds of UK hosts say the additional income helps them afford to stay in their homes and keep pace with rising costs.

“Airbnb enforces the rules on short-term lets in London, which restrict homes to being let for 90 nights a year unless they have planning permission, and we have called for these measures to continue.

“We also support the government’s new national short-term rental rules, which will help local authorities track the positive impacts of home sharing in supporting local families and small businesses.”