Edinburgh council approve Short-term Let Control area

Edinburgh council approve proposal to designate the entire Council area as a Short-term Let Control area.

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.

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

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."

 

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