Gove proposes restrictions on vacation rentals in talks with Tory rebels who target housing | Lodging

Michael Gove is resisting efforts by Conservative planning rebels to abolish all housing targets, but the Upgrading Department is offering other sweeping concessions, including restrictions on vacation rentals such as Airbnb.

A government source said progress had been made in talks with at least 60 MPs who had signed an amendment that would scrap mandatory local housing targets and make them advisory only.

The bill is unlikely to return to parliament next week as negotiations continue with the rebels. Gove is unlikely to agree to drop the target, but has offered potential deals on further amendments to the Leveling Bill submitted by many of the same rebel Tories.

The Upgrading Secretary plans to force landlords to submit a ‘change of use’ planning application to the council if they want to turn properties into short-term vacation rentals like Airbnbs, in a development reported for the first time times in the Times.

The decision to drop planning targets is backed by some former cabinet ministers including Theresa Villiers, Damian Green, Esther McVey, Priti Patel, Chris Grayling and Iain Duncan Smith. Labor will not support the move, but Rishi Sunak is said to be unwilling to pass the measures on the back of Labor votes without a Tory majority.

Villiers and other supporters have also submitted a host of other amendments to the leveling bill, including the change requiring planning permission to change a property’s use as a tourist rental.

A departmental source did not deny it was on the table and said: ‘We are engaging with colleagues constructively to strengthen the bill.

Other amendments submitted by Villiers include changing the legal limit for starting development after planning permission from two years to one, and granting new powers to revoke planning permission from developers who have not started construction.

MPs who saw Gove said this was also an area of ​​agreement with the government. “I don’t think we’re particularly far apart on these things; it’s about the right development in the right place,” said one.

Another said “land hoarding” was the main concern, suggesting many rebels could live with the changes if the targets were not abolished. “We are still negotiating and we have a few more days. The land bank is a big deal for me.

Another amendment would require the Secretary of State to review potential financial incentives for brownfields versus developing green areas.

The report stage vote on the leveling bill was canceled last week as the government struggled to find a compromise. The row is awkward for Sunak who promised in his Tory leadership bid to relax the five-year land offer rule, which determines whether there have been enough sites allocated for development, and also prevents local authorities to request changes to the green belt boundaries.

Sunak also faces two separate rebellions over onshore wind development, led by former leveling secretary Simon Clarke, who tabled an amendment to lift the de facto ban. But John Hayes, MP and close ally of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, has threatened to mount a counter-rebellion with the support of at least 19 MPs to halt onshore wind development.

The government has signaled that it will likely find a way to relax some of the onerous onshore wind planning laws as a concession to Clarke, but will likely announce its own way to do so rather than agree to its amendment.

His amendment was backed by a number of high-profile supporters, including former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, as well as ex-leader Wendy Morton.