The government is considering whether it should become mandatory for home owners to apply for planning consent if they intend to use their property for holiday lets.

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The Times says this is being looked at as part of the government’s plans to restrict the number of holiday lets in areas where it is considered there are very few affordable homes to buy or rent for local people.

If legislation is introduced home owners wishing to make use of their property as a holiday let would have to submit a ‘change of use’ planning application, the local planning authorities would have the power on whether to accept the submission, currently the Welsh government is also considering this.

Michael Gove has already been in contact with around 60 Conservative MPs to consider the idea and are considering inflicting a series of Commons defeats on government proposals that if successful could drastically restrict housebuilding in England.

Gove’s proposal is just being discussed between Tory MPs so far, but Generation Rent group has already ‘slammed’ the idea.

Dan Wilson Craw, the deputy director of the group, has been busy with a series of tweets about the proposal, saying: “Planning permission would presumably be retrospective, meaning that the 17,000 holiday lets registered for business rates since 2020 will stay in the tourist sector.

“ … Landlords in Cornwall, the Lakes etc can make the same income they get from a tenant in a year in just two months from tourists. That means any property with planning permission for holiday letting will be worth loads more.

“ … We need to recognise that the existing laissez-faire treatment of holiday lets would mean most new-builds would continue to be snapped up for tourists.

“…Rather than planning permission we should register landlords, whether they let their property to tourists or tenants - and give councils the power to cap the number of licences available to operate holiday lets. Licences would expire, making residential use the default setting.