The Standard View: London's renters need curbs on holiday let free-for-all

From agents’ fees to six-round interviews with prospective flatmates, finding somewhere to rent in London is an exercise in strategic patience. Yet somehow, the process has become even harder in recent years.

As we report in today’s Standard, a “Wild West” of Airbnb-style short-term lets risks a hollowing out of the capital, with Westminster alone posting more than 10,500 homes being used for holiday lets. A case in point: about 90 per cent of the 118 properties at Forset Court, an apartment building next to Hyde Park, are being used for holiday stays, investigators have found.

The Government has introduced new controls meaning landlords will need local authority permission to turn their property into a short-term let. Yet these rules, set to come into effect this summer, will not apply to those renting out their primary residence for fewer than 90 nights a year. Furthermore, only new short-term lets will require planning permission, with existing ones automatically reclassified. This will create what Westminster council leader Adam Hug terms “an effective amnesty for years of rule-breaking, anti-social behaviour”.

Building more and affordable homes is critical, but so too is ensuring that the present stock is actually available to people who live and work in the city. What renters need is genuine enforcement and no amnesty for those already found to be breaking the rules.

For one of the transportation marvels of the modern world, the Elizabeth line still displays a glaring absence — mobile coverage. But from today, superfast 4G connectivity is available across all central stations and should be extended to tunnels across the entire line by the end of the year.

Mayor Sadiq Khan has also promised that the 4G network — being installed at no cost to TfL by Boldyn Networks — will be completed by the end of 2025, when it will also include the Overground and DLR. More time to text, stream and, of course, follow the journey at standard.co.uk.

Win and keep the dream of Champions League football next season alive. Lose, and prevent the nightmare of fierce rivals Arsenal winning the Premier League. Spurs fans, which side are you on?

Tottenham host Manchester City this evening, knowing what they do may well decide the title race. Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou says he cannot understand any fan wanting their own team to lose and that he has not lived his life by taking “pleasure from other people’s misery”. As if that isn’t half the joy of football fandom.