We are dealing with a housing crisis. Tory housing policy has exacerbated that and we’ve seen the market spiral out of control, private renters facing continued hikes and a chronic shortage of social housing for those who need support to access housing. The rise of short-term letting sites like AirBnB has added to the pressure, with swathes of housing in Camden and across London effectively transferred from use as homes for people who live and work in the capital to part of the tourist economy.

This isn’t us railing against new tech or an emerging part of the economy either. We have no problem with the sharing economy per se, or with people letting out their homes short-term while for example they are on holiday; just the wholesale transfer of homes to hotels.

It creates other problems too. Particularly in areas of dense housing like Camden. You know what it’s like when you’re on holiday. You get up a bit later, maybe drink a bit more, are a bit more carefree. You create more noise – and it’s every night not just the weekends. When homes are turned in to holiday lets it creates real antisocial behaviour problems for neighbours who have to live with the noise.

Because councils need to be able to ensure housing is used for people who need homes, there has always been a restriction on the number of days it can be used for another purpose, including as a holiday let. The limit is 90 days. But AirBnB were not enforcing this limit on the users who were renting out their homes. With council budget cuts our capacity to enforce was limited. And with holiday lets attracting around double the nightly rate that the private rented sector does, the incentives for many landlords were simply too tempting.

Housing is the biggest crisis facing London. So much so that business organisations like London First have been warning that it was impacting their members’ ability to attract and retain staff and ultimately could have a negative economic impact. For Labour, providing safe, affordable housing is at the very heart of our values. That is why we launched a campaign to get AirBnB to assist with simply applying the law, as they have done in other cities.

It took time, and in the end many more people were involved with us. At points we got such a poor reception many of us felt like giving up. But with the help of other councillors and members of the London Assembly, and of course the many residents affected, we plugged away and eventually got results.

Last week, AirBnB announced that they’ll enforce the 90 day limit for their renters in London from the 1 January next year. While we’ll need to keep an eye on whether the mechanisms they use actually get the desired results, I would like to thank AirBnB for taking seriously the issues raised by us and others, and acting to enforce the law.

There are two wider lessons for Labour from this campaign. Firstly, to those who suggest it’s just too difficult for councils who’ve had their budgets routed to make a difference; well there are still many things that we can do to make a difference for our communities. What is more important than safeguarding our already scarce housing supply?

Secondly, how we work with our changing economy. Labour does need to adapt. Some of the new economy is exploitative, and we should be clear about that. But many people want greater flexibility and choices over how they make money. We should be open to new ideas so long as we can safeguard the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.

In the meantime I would like to thank AirBnB for changing their platform to enforce existing rules around use of homes as holiday lets. We will happily work with them to make this work so people in Camden can continue to let out homes for legitimate periods, while we still safeguard our homes for people who need to live and work here.

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Sarah Hayward is leader of Camden Council. She tweets at @Sarah_Hayward

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Photo: Flickr, Nic Hogg