A Deluge of Short-Term Lets?

In a recent City of Edinburgh Council paper on the new licensing system for short-term lets which will come into power next year, it estimated that something like 10-12,000 Edinburgh properties were listed on internet platforms like Airbnb. The Scottish Government in its analysis of the issues as it considered a licensing regime suggested upwards of 16,000 properties were used as a short-term let in the city.  Local residents, amenity bodies and local housing pressure groups have consistently identified short-term rented properties as sources of unsustainable and negative pressure on the city’s housing stock.

Edinburgh councillors recently voted to make Edinburgh Scotland’s first short term control area, which will soon require properties being used for short-term letting and not as a permanent residence to seek planning permission for change of use, effectively saying that these are non-residential properties. It is of interest that one of the SNP’s local government election commitments suggests that such permission will not be granted unless in “exceptional circumstances”.  Other parties also gave commitments – Labour said it will “Use the new planning and licensing powers to control the numbers of short term lets in the city and put in place effective enforcement.”  The Greens say they, “Crack down on short-term holiday lets by setting the whole city as a short-term let control area and setting a new planning policy against the loss of homes to other uses without delay.”  The Lib Dems “support the city-wide controls on short term lets.”

Any property being used as a short term let will have to apply for a license from local authorities by April 2023 under new legislation passed by the Scottish Government.

Over the past couple of years, the Cockburn has heard from many of its stakeholders and members who have suffered persistent noise nuisance, serious disturbance, and disruption associated with short-term let occupation, particularly in tenements with a common stair.

However, this week the reality of the situation which faces many residents, communities, and the city’s planners, has come home to roost.  Around 90 applications for short-term lets have been logged for planning permission this week (these are mapped below, with single location pins representing multiple applications in individual tenement blocks).

Sixty-four of these applications are from one business alone! This is a significant step-change over what we have seen in recent weeks and months.  And many of these represent whole common stairs that are now fully occupied by short-term letting properties, so removing accommodation opportunities for excluding local residents who are desperately seeking affordable long-term housing. But this must still on the smallest tip of the iceberg of short-term lets that still have to seek appropriate permissions to operate.

The city’s planning system was not set up to deal with this volume of planning applications and we doubt if the city planners are not resourced to deal with these. Similarly, no single resident, civic group or stakeholder can possibly respond to such a deluge of applications arriving at the same time.  Meaningful scrutiny of all relevant circumstances and impacts cannot be achieved.

So, what to do?  The Cockburn will be speaking to the city’s planning service to discuss options for dealing with this huge volume of applications, suggesting the need for a simple way forward that doesn’t disadvantage individuals or communities

We will also call on the new city administration to significantly increase the resource available to planning service to process effectively and efficiently short-term let applications. The not considerable issue of enforcement will also have to be addressed. Just what will happen when a change of use application is refused?