Westminster’s rental licensing scheme launches this month

'Landmark' new regulation covers private rental homes in 15 of the Prime Central London borough's 18 wards.

'Short-term lets have been widely abused - when you have one residential block renting out more rooms than the Ritz every night, you know the system needs reform,' says the leader of Westminster City Council.

The EU's Fifth Money Laundering Directive is slated to come into play in January, requiring UK letting agents dealing in rents above €10k per month to carry out AML checks on their clients.