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Category: Short-Term Let Regulations

Short-Term Let Licensing Extends to Non-Licenced Guest Houses

Posted on by Fiona Campbell

Guest Houses and B&Bs that do not have a licence to sell alcohol, according to the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, will require a STL Licence:

Guest houses were listed as excluded accommodation in the original Licensing Order, as laid in December 2020. However, they were included in the draft Licensing Order that went to public consultation in June 2021. The rationale for their inclusion is set out in the 2021 consultation paper (item 1 in the table at page 12): Short term lets – draft licensing order and business and regulatory impact assessment (BRIA): consultation – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Lodges within the grounds of a hotel would be classed as excluded accommodation in the following circumstances (as set out in Schedule 1, 1b):

Premises in respect of which a premises licence within the meaning of section 17 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005(6) has effect and where the provision of accommodation is an activity listed in the operating plan as defined in section 20(4) of the 2005 Act. There is a section in the operating plan of any premises where you confirm that accommodation is part of the overall activity. If this is stated, the property is excluded from the requirement to have a STL Licence. 

Edinburgh Council approves Short-Term Let Control Area

Posted on by Fiona Campbell

Edinburgh council approved proposal to designate the entire Council area as a Short-term Let Control area. yesterday (23rd February).

Following Scottish MSPs’ vote to support short-term let licensing in January 2022, Edinburgh council have now approved the proposal to designate the entire Council area as a Short-term Let Control area.

The goal for control areas is to manage high concentrations of secondary letting, restrict or prevent short-term lets in places or types of building where it is not appropriate; and help local authorities ensure that homes are used to best effect in their areas.

Edinburgh council is the first council in Scotland to approve the proposal for their council, which will require all short-term lets to apply for planning permission.

According to the short let software company, Bookster’s Director Robin Morris: 

“This Control Area applies across the entire Edinburgh Council area, setting precedent for other councils across Scotland to follow suit. Other areas of the UK will be watching too.

This will devastate the short lets industry in Edinburgh. Cleaners, concierge teams, marketing agencies, and tourism that is dependent on it will be impacted.

Short-term rentals provide for groups such as families and festival performers in a way that hotels simply do not.

This heavy-handed approach to shift towards multinational hotel groups is changing the character of the city before our eyes and syphoning revenue out of Edinburgh.”

Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers Chief Executive, Fiona Campbell, said:

“By voting to include the entire city in this anti-business and restrictive scheme, City of Edinburgh Council has shown that it does not care for the many small businesses who work hard to ensure that the capital continues to have a world-leading tourism offering.

“Councillors are well aware that the real problem is a chronic lack of house-building, but it is much more expedient to scapegoat short-term rental professionals than do anything real to combat that.

“The ASSC will continue to stand alongside Edinburgh’s self-catering professionals, and our colleagues across tourism, to ensure a fair deal for all and an end to the unfair misrepresentation that our sector has endured.”

Parliamentary Questions:

S6W-06964: Mark Griffin, Central Scotland, Scottish Labour, Date Lodged: 01/03/2022 R

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the publication, Planning circular 01/2021: Establishing a Short-term Let Control Area, which is described as being out of date until a new version is made available in Spring 2022, what impact this will have on the (a) control area designation process by local authorities and (b) approval of designation applications by Scottish Ministers.
Current Status: Expected Answer date 15/03/2022

S6W-06962: Mark Griffin, Central Scotland, Scottish Labour, Date Lodged: 01/03/2022 R

To ask the Scottish Government what its process and timeline is for considering whether to approve the City of Edinburgh Council short-term let control area designation.
Current Status: Expected Answer date 15/03/2022

 

Edinburgh Council Set to Approve Citywide Short-Term Let Control Area

Posted on by Fiona Campbell

ALL short-term let properties in Edinburgh not being used as a home are set to be required to obtain planning permission after city officials recommended “to designate the entire council area as a short-term let control area.”.

Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers Chief Executive, Fiona Campbell, said:

“Including the whole of Edinburgh in this restrictive and anti-business scheme will have a hugely detrimental impact on the many small businesses who work tirelessly to ensure that the capital has one of the world’s best tourism offerings.

“The real problem Edinburgh has is a lack of house building, but our local authority has chosen to pick on an easy scapegoat rather than address the real and difficult issue.

“Despite the misrepresentation that we have had to deal with, the ASSC will continue to promote self-catering in Edinburgh and across Scotland and remains committed to finding a policy solution that works for all.”

Read the ASSC response to the Planning Control Zone Consultation: ECC response to Planning Control Zone Legislation

According to the Planning Committee Report, alternatives to Short-Term Lets include:

  • Multiple hotel developments in the city and hosts who let a room in their property add to [tourism accommodation] supply. Regulating the entire property lets should not prevent visitors from coming to the city.
  • Tourist population should be naturally regulated by the number of available hotel and B&B spaces.
  • Demand should be met via development of the dedicated aparthotel sector rather than the removal of residential properties from the long term rental / home ownership market.
  • Better to promote the trend for affordable hotel accommodation to provide safe accommodation.
  • Homeowners letting out rooms and entire properties if they reside in the property the majority of the time will allow for an increase in short term lets for the festival periods.
  • STLs take business away from established guest houses and hotels with inferior facilities risking reputational damage.
  • Places pressure and unfair competition on existing hotel accommodation and similar other businesses, particularly as there is no regulation of short term lets.
  • Declining use of office accommodation means that there are other ways to think about catering for visitors’ accommodation needs.
  • Hotel businesses employ large numbers of people within the city and the uncontrolled growth of the short term let accommodation has affected that employment rate, to the disbenefit of the local economy.

https://democracy.edinburgh.gov.uk/documents/s42696/7.1%20-%20Short-term%20Let%20Area%20of%20Control%20Designation.pdf

https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/19932235.edinburgh-council-set-approve-citywide-airbnb-short-term-let-control-area/