MICHAEL Gove has been accused of imposing “anti-business” curbs on people wanting to rent out their property on Airbnb amid signs of a Tory split.
The Cabinet Minister was attacked for planning more red tape demanding homeowners to get planning permission to rent out homes as a holiday let.
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Ex-Housing Minister Simon Clarke said such interventions are a result of not building enough homes.
He also hit out at the expensive Help to Buy scheme allowing first-time buyers to get a home with a five per cent deposit and a fifth of the purchase price interest free for five years.
Mr Clarke said: “So many of our interventions in the housing market, from anti-business ones like this to very costly demand-side subsidies like Help to Buy, stem from our failure to build enough homes, and to make the argument to the public about why this matters.”
Ministers want to change planning laws to allow town halls to block future holiday homes if there isn’t enough affordable housing to rent or buy.
It comes as Rishi Sunak was accused of being “too weak” to stand up to party members over measures to boost housebuilding.
He revealed there was little support in the wider Tory party for a planning system that imposes “top-down targets” on local areas.
The Prime Minister revealed he wants to build “the right number of homes” but in “the right places” and “the right way”.
Shadow housing secretary Lisa Nandy said: “It is utterly shameful that the Prime Minister admits he ditched housing targets because he’s too weak to stand up to Tory members.
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“That decision has pushed housebuilding off a cliff and exacerbated a housing crisis that was already causing misery for millions of families and young people, but Rishi Sunak clearly thinks that’s all OK because a few thousand Tory members are happy.
“We need a prime minister that puts our country before his party.”
