This morning, the Scottish Parliament’s Local Government Committee has released details of a short survey on the Scottish Government’s proposed STL regulations and the changes they have made to their licensing scheme.
The Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee wants your views on plans to regulate short-term lets.
If approved, the new laws would see the introduction of a licensing scheme for short-term lets. The Scottish Government suggests that the new laws would:
- make sure short-term lets are safe,
- help with issues faced by neighbours from short-terms lets, and
- help councils know and understand what is happening in their areas about the provision of short-term lets.
Ahead of the new laws being introduced later this year, the Committee wants to hear from people across Scotland about whether the proposed laws will achieve what they set out to do.
Plans to regulate short-term lets in Scotland are expected to be considered in November and December.
Further details can be accessed here: https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/committees/current-and-previous-committees/session-6-local-government-housing-and-planning/business-items/short-term-lets-regulations
The link to the survey can be found here: https://yourviews.parliament.scot/spice/licensing-of-short-term-lets/consultation/intro/
The deadline for this is 29 October.
There is agreement from nearly all stakeholders about the need for some form of regulation, just not on what form this should take. Despite the years of discussion, there is still uncertainty about what the Scottish Government are seeking to achieve through their legislation. With the government introducing policies like overprovision into the legislation, this raises some fundamental questions about what they want to achieve through their licensing regulations which were meant to be about health and safety:
- If it is about health and safety – this can be addressed through the ASSC’s exemption proposal which is a balanced and proportionate approach.
- If it is about anti-social behaviour – enforce existing legislation such as the Antisocial Behaviour Notices (Houses Used for Holiday Purposes) (Scotland) Order 2011.
- Ifi t is about housing – introduce short-term let control zones using Planning Act regulations and empirical data to underpin any proposals.
It is a short survey, but it is critical that anyone that has anything to do with Short-Term Lets responds: operators / agencies / cleaners / supply chain / as well people who stay in short-term let properties for business or pleasure.
Could we ask you, once again, for your support in responding to this survey. This really could be the last chance to get the Scottish Government to revisit the legislation as proposed, which constitutes the biggest ever threat to our sector.
The Local Government Committee can be contacted here.
Their Twitter handle is @SP_LocalGov
