The lender has registered the postcodes on its system to prevent holiday let mortgage applications in those areas from being approved. If an owner wants to turn their property into an Airbnb part way through the year, they would need to apply for a ‘consent to let’.
Both North Norfolk District Council and North Yorkshire Council have cited ongoing housing pressures created by their popularity as tourist destinations.
In October, The Telegraph visited Blakeney in North Norfolk – a village where 44pc of all housing is either a second home or holiday let.
Locals said they are having to live in such cramped areas now, and that many houses “are in darkness” for much of the year. Across North Norfolk, there is a 2,500-household-long waiting list for affordable housing.
North Norfolk District Council also wants to add a £1 Paris-style tourist levy onto Airbnb bookings to help plug finances which have come under strain.
Andy Fenner, chief executive of Short Term Accommodation Association, said Leeds Building Society’s latest plans to restrict who it lends to will “have no impact at all” on freeing up homes for local people.
Instead, he said it puts the tourism industry at risk and the thousands of jobs that rely on it in these communities.
He added: “It also perpetuates the misconception that the holiday let industry is somehow to blame for the housing crisis. Where there is higher demand for short-term rentals, they are responsible for jobs and tourism income. Why would you want to destroy that? These holiday lets aren’t a luxury to the people and businesses who depend on them.
“The lending restrictions cover such wide areas, they aren’t targeted, and won’t have the desired impact in any case. The irony is that much of the funding for new house building ultimately comes from this kind of mortgage lending in the first place, which they are now throttling.”
Earlier this week, Mr Gove outlined new rules which will require new short-term let owners to secure planning permission from local authorities in a bid to stop them “hollowing out” communities.
The rules won’t, however, apply to those letting out their main home for 90 days or less each year.
