The petition was started by Generation Rent, the national campaign for private renters, on the 38 Degrees website.
Over 8,000 Londoners have called on Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to ban adverts encouraging landlords to ditch tenants for Airbnb-style lettings to earn more money.
The petition was started by Generation Rent, the national campaign for private renters, on the 38 Degrees website.
It comes after Hostmaker, a property management company, paid for adverts across the TFL network that suggest landlords can earn 30% more by switching to holiday lets.
Georgie Laming, Generation Rent campaigner, said: “These tube ads are feeding a narrative that tenants are disposable, and profiteering from property is more important than providing long-term homes.
“They are encouraging landlords to take homes off the market and turn them into hotels that will be often left empty, contributing nothing to the local community.
“If Sadiq Khan is truly committed to making housing affordable in London then he needs to ban ads like these. Unregulated holiday lets are driving up rents and preventing tenants from making a house a home.”
Megan Bentall, campaigns manager at 38 Degrees, said: “Short-term lets are spreading across London, pushing up the costs of rent and forcing people out of the communities they’ve always lived in. So, these ads are in pretty poor taste.
“That's why 8,000 people across London are calling for Sadiq Khan to step up and block these ads from Transport for London spaces. The public want politicians to work to fix the housing crisis–not allow companies to run dodgy ads that will make it worse."
Generation Rent said the petition attacks the distasteful tube ad for undermining the Mayor of London’s efforts to make housing affordable in London.
The campaign has garnered support from London politicians including Karen Buck MP and Assembly members Sian Berry and Tom Copley.
