Activists want thousands of pounds to campaign agains...

A group of activists is trying to raise £15,000 to campaign for local councils to clampdown on AirBnb and other short lets.

The group Action on Empty Homes - which has preciously worked to bring empty properties into use - is now attacking short lets with a campaign it calls #Airbnbsucks.

On its fundraising page the group writes: “Airbnb sucks homes out of residential use. Much-needed housing is turned from homes into holiday and leisure lets.

“Communities are broken up as locals move further away to find affordable housing.

“Meanwhile, short-let properties stand empty for half the year and businesses struggle to survive in ghost towns and villages.

“Airbnb has driven a 1000 per cent increase in homes lost to short-letting in just five years.”

The campaign does not source its figures.

It continues: “This isn't about stopping people going on holiday. Airbnb can be a great platform to find a cabin tucked away somewhere beautiful or a room for a short city stay.

“However, it becomes a problem when whole homes are let by the weekend or week rather than being long term rental properties that a family can make their home.

“It is a problem when so-called investors purchase large amounts of a community's housing stock, pushing up house prices and using up what could be somebody's home.”

It says it wants £15,000 to lobby government to “empower local authorities through new legislation to deliver change” and “arm local communities with the knowledge and tools to persuade local politicians to back our campaign for Community Control of Airbnb and Short-lets.”

The campaign is similar to that put forward by Labour and the Generation Rent group calling for local councils to have licensing powers over individuals who wish to short let their properties.

And Action on Empty Homes adds: “So far we have been lobbying nationally, working with housing and data experts to publicise the damaging impacts, and supporting local campaigns where funders resource us.

“This has delivered media coverage for those local campaigns and got Government thinking about change - our voice is being heard but we need your help to make it louder.”

The fundraising has had only a modest start: at the time of writing, and after three days of online exposure, the campaign has raised just £350.