An Isle of Wight councillor is calling on people renting their properties through AirBnB to think of others and provide housing for Islanders instead.
In a meeting of the council’s corporate scrutiny committee on Tuesday, Councillor Michael Lilley said everyone needed to work together to fix the Island’s housing crisis solving the ‘real issues’ which have created it.
He highlighted the increasing costs of bringing building materials to the Island, the withdrawal of private houses from the rental sector and the increasing number of second homes.
Similar to authorities in Cornwall, Cllr Lilley said the Isle of Wight Council should be speaking to the Government and seeing if legislation could be brought in to protect the Island from second homes. He said the council should be using the forums it has with landlords, developers and housing associations to say if they are on the Island, they should be working with the council to solve the crisis and provide housing for future generations.
Cllr Lilley also said they need to bring communities together and ask people to stop using their properties for AirBnB, instead providing housing for others.
His speech was during discussions on the council’s efforts to contribute to affordable housing and the draft Island Planning Strategy.
The number of houses the council proposes to buy this year to provide temporary accommodation (25) was criticised and branded ‘pitiful’ by Councillor Joe Robertson, leader of the Conservatives at County Hall, when there were more than 2,500 people on the council’s housing register.
Councillor Ian Stephens, housing cabinet member, said Islanders would understand the council has to do its due diligence and be careful when spending public money. He said they were not heartless and if he had an open wallet he would look after all those in temporary accommodation.
Cllr Stephens said he was not happy with the position the council was in, and while he did not think they were succeeding he also did not think they were failing. He said they were not putting all their eggs in one basket to acquire properties to help the council’s housing needs, with 5 or 6 different means and the option of building.
Cllr Lilley said the council cannot let the plan be stalled any further, needing it to be approved in September, because the longer the authority was left without it, the more ‘developers would love it’.
Without an up-to-date planning strategy, coupled with the failure to build houses, the Isle of Wight Council suffers from planning constraints which fall in favour of development.
To all of island echo my friend is renting there cottage in ryde cheap at the end of July for a week, 1x double bed
Anyone interested in a 1 bedroom cottage in ryde for a week at the end of July?
Future generations, Probably means future generations from some ware else in the UK. Its not just houses that are needed for our youngster’s its jobs. The two usually go together . How do you solve that one ?
It would be wiser for central Government to cut back all the hand outs to those who despite living in social housing, still have the most children, which provides them with a cushy lifestyle of a fully maintained house, cheap or zero rent when on tax credits or Universal credit, BUT are adding to the next generations housing problems.
Homes cost hundreds of thousands to build now, and if you are so poor you cannot afford to buy your home, why the hell do you have so many children knowing they will suffer?
Answer, because you can sit on the beach, work a few hours and life like the rich.
Hence staff shortages.
Kids theses days think the world owes them a place to live. They just don’t want to work
Time to get your head out of your arse. Buy to let is immoral and feeding of people who are not in the position to save for a deposit. If you don’t have rich parents you need to be earning £60k to be able to afford the rent and save the £50k + for a deposit. The kids these days are absolutely screwed. They have little to no chance to affording a home. Only way is if they have a relative that can give them the deposit.
Totally agree with you Fred, it is immoral. I had an IOW Estate Agent come round to value my (only) property and she told me that her father already had 4 BTL’s on the Island. This closed the door for any business with me it is fair to say.
I know a lot of youngsters keen to work & want to learn how to get on. You can’t accept you can write off a generation
Why stop with air BnB, call for the bed and breakfast establishments to let their rooms and also all the hotels, caravan parks and the nice owners could even supply tents so the camp sites can get in on the act. After all, these capitalists are all disease on society. what next, people trying to make an income our of their hard work?
She (He) came from Planet Claire
I knew she came from there
She drove a Plymouth Satellite
Faster than the speed of light
I must keep taking my medication (If I could get any that is, as there are too many people on the island and not enough doctors)
Maybe is George Osborne had not have raised income tax on landlords rental property they would not be selling up or going down the airb&b route?
Why don’t the council build decent 3 /4 bed flats to rent themselves.Cheaper than buying/or building houses?
A champion idea……….IF it is someone else’s home you want ruined for little or likely no payment.
In years past council houses, or now housing association homes were fairly easy to come by if you were poor.
But this led to those in such, not seeing or caring and filling each bedroom to the max, so now, with house prices so high, and most who have children work, if at all, just a few hours, but pay little in rent or council tax, the system cannot fund the building of more homes for all their numerous off-spring.
Benefits for those with children are too generous, hence why there are not enough workers, as having children pays
The reason for a housing shortage if easy to see.
Too generous benefit system.
Hence the mass influx of bodies, willing to risk their lives to come here, for once the struggle is over, then to be given a free home, and paid even more as you empty a womb is worth the risk for many.
Bad enough when our own people did such, but now the third world has jumped upon the bandwagon, then the system can no longer cope.
Contraception is free, BUT using it means no free home or free council tax, no hundreds per week in tax credits, and child allowance, YET it does mean having to work full time and paying your way in life.
I’m all for a free market, but there is a solution that is just a penalty, not a mandate – Sole private residential 100% Council tax, Holiday Cottages at 300%, Second Homes at 500%, AirBnB at 600%. Oh.. and stop net immigration & reduce the abundanr mony supply via money printing & crazy low interest rates. No wonder inflation is rampant.
Council tax is a blunt tool for householders to pay for the maintenance of local services, refuse collection, street maintenance and lighting etc. calculated on the value of the property..
That might sound a little naïve but it is the basic principle.
The sale of holiday cottages and second homes won’t alleviate homelessness, those people are unlikely to be able to buy those houses and I imagine it will only be a matter of time before some council is taken to court for charging a premium council tax rate for people who use local services less (prejudice in most other areas).
I imagine that will be quite an interesting judgement.
I am not talking homeless, I refer to thousands of young people earning £20k – 30k P/A gross each per year who are being stuffed settling down in life due to the overdemand in IOW property resulting from second homes, AirBnB etc. Council tax is often unfair, but at least is makes it a free market decisoin if to hoard property or not. The financialisation of Shelter, Education and Medicine is really bad news for society. And I’m a Tory.
I admit that I don’t know the current cost of ‘starter homes’, such as that huge ongoing development between Asda and Staplers, but I accept your overall point about first time buyers.
Returning to the lack of rental properties I think it unfair to suggest landlords are ‘hoarding’ property, quite the reverse when increased legislation and restrictions placed upon them is driving them out of the rental business and causing them to sell up anyway.
It is absolutely ludicrous for Cllr Lilley to call for all parties to work together when that patently doesn’t include encouraging private landlords to help instead constantly berating, hindering and legislating against them.
At present if a second home is used for holiday letting in excess of 140 days then that property is taken out of council tax & becomes business rated. However & here is the rub if the Rateable value is less than £ 15,000 then NO TAX IS PAYABLE. Its quite probable that 70% of holiday lets pay no rates to the council.
-Homes for sale on the Island should be given priority to Islanders ,before allowing people to buy second homes .
-A Islander buying their first house is for a home .
– Someone buying a second home here is for a holiday .
– Iow home finder should be giving priority to families with medical ,and welfare grounds ,
before giving priority to families just because they have a local connection to a new build home .
– Islanders and generations of families born, and lived ,and worked ,here all their life’s ,will have a connection to most of the Island through family .
– so is it not common sense to house these families first .
How on earth can you make that workable? Fantasy!
To Leyton Stone
I agree with you it’s never going to happen .
Just saying that in an ideal world that would be nice .
The fact that the council is not yet talking to the government about limiting ‘second homes’ just goes to show how slow this council is to deal with housing issues. It’s painful really.
Seems a bit ironic that a Ryde councillor is targeting AIRBNB, given that his town is the Events party hub for visitors. Perhaps he can arrange for the boats at the new harbour to be converted to social housing. Perhaps he can seek to convert the Old Town Hall his town council is buying to social housing. Or the other old buildings his local council has purchased. Perhaps he could squeeze a hostel into Appley Tower. Do your bit for the Island eh?
Most councillors talk rubbish most of the time they need to practice what they preach .
Simple, ban buy to let. So many are paying 3X what a mortgage would be in rent. Give them the chance to buy. House prices are inflated by the blood sucking boomers who got lucky and have brought all the houses. They say it’s from hard work, but it’s not, they got lucky with cheap council houses.
Born at the right-timers.
Never heard anything so dumb in my life, asking someone to provide lodging for benefit claimants who’ll be impossible to evict, having their property trashed and all that in return for smaller profit.
“The council has to do its due diligence and be careful when spending public money”.
I REALLY do not believe that Councillor Stephenson had the brass neck to utter theses words!
Since WHEN has the IoW Council cared in any way shape or form how they spend Council Tax Payers money?
There is a whole litany of vanity projects that they have thrown money at. BUT when it comes to something necessary, they claim they have to be careful with funds!!
You really couldn’t make it up!
Mr Lilley is clearly as idiotic as he looks. Could he be any further away from reality? Does he REALLY expect (in a free market economy) that property owners will do this? Or does he genuinely think that laying off the councils legal responsibility onto the private sector is the way forward. Fool.
Like many in some sort of authority he is deemed ‘nice but dim’ yet the ‘nice’ bit is very dangerous as they come across as ‘kind, decent’ people but would be dangerous in their gulibility and stupidity IFthey ever held real power.
Luckily fools rarely have that chance.
How about we get the island economy strong enough to pay a fair wage, one that meets the national average or more, rather than everyone on minimum or little better.
That’s why benefits pay, especially on this crumbling little rock.
Then maybe folks would have a better chance of ownership?
And yes, stop building, and stop outside/non island purchase of property.
So people who work hard enough to invest into a 2nd home Airbnb which they pay taxes on and the guests spend money in local area – tourism giving job’s to community, should give up to people who don’t work or pay taxes and take money from community in form of Benefits . Housing shortage should be affordable temp housing and people need to work – save and buy own home. But oops forget they have to spend on latest mobiles, trainers, clothes and sky TV etc. Some people are daft they are poor but give to the rich – Nike/iPhone etc.
Increase the minimum wage and charge second homes more simple
Not simple at all really. What exactly does ‘charge second homes more’ mean? Are you talking about the sale price or Council Tax or what? All the purchaser will do is buy it in a different name e.g. wife, husband, son, daughter.
I’m ancient enough to remember council houses being given into your care with the warning that you must treat them well & if you were not keeping the house clean tidy & spruce & noise levels were not acceptable you could be kicked out. Back then there was plenty of social housing & then came the council house sell off. What a mistake that was
Maybe, before telling home owners on the Island to sell their property, the Council could stop bringing people over from the mainland and housing them here? That would be the obvious, logical first step if we have a housing crisis.
I wonder how many properties on the Island have been handed to families and individuals off-loaded from other Councils on the mainland in, say, the last 10 years? Are there any figures on this available? Somehow I doubt it.
I remember the time when you could only get council housing here if you were actually born on the Island – not a bad policy ?