Highland Council backs move for short term let control zone in Badenoch and Strathspey
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Highland Council has unanimously agreed to proceed with the statutory process to establish a control area for AirBnB-style short-term lets effectively bringing them under planning control.
The bold move makes the council one of the first local authorities to effectively enact 'untried' legislation and could even trigger a wave of sales across Badenoch and Strathspey as short-term let property owners seek to cash in.
The matter will now fall into the hands of Scottish Minister for a final decision after a public consultation on the move.
It follows a successful motion raised by Badenoch and Strathspey Highland councillor Bill Lobban in September proposing the plan in a bid to deal with a wave of problems sparked by the rise in holiday lets that have blighted life for many.
The issues range from sky-rocketing prices leaving locals unable to purchase homes to so-called party houses impacting residents and even contributing to problems retaining staff who cannot live near work.
The report to the council’s latest environment and infrastructure committee stated the growth in short-term lets (STL) the country “whilst bringing additional visitors (and therefore tourist spend) into an area has led to several well publicised national issues related to the loss of housing stock for purchase and long-term rent and is noted as being one of the reasons for rising prices in respect of both.
“Additionally, national concern has been expressed that much of the STL market is unregulated and untaxed and as such the Scottish Government is bringing forward new legislation to manage and control STL.”
The report detailed three options along with associated risk for councillors to choose from with option one basically being a do nothing approach that risks maintaining restricted housing supply, loss of residents from fragile communities and high property prices.
Option two sought to allow time to gather accurate data and assessments on the number of STLs across the area, which again maintains high property values and risks delaying the support for rural housing and communities.
Option three was ultimately agreed unanimously which will see the potential for residential properties used as STL being reverted to full time homes, afford greater protection to residential privacy, amenity, and reduction in disturbance.
It would also support the re-population of fragile communities while seeing house prices reduce due to greater availability.
But officers fear this would carry several risks including the assessment of STL numbers being based on incomplete information and make Highland Council among the first local authorities to enact untried legislation.
Other “risk” areas such as sparking a rapid rise in former STL properties coming onto the housing market and restricting STL could impact on other tourist related businesses due to lower tourist numbers could be seen as welcome by supporters.
More properties it has been argued would allow locals to remain local while providing numbers of the workforce which is already having an impact on tourist-related businesses unable to keep staff.
Further concerns are a control area increasing the number of planning applications the council has to determine could negatively impact on service and budgets or adding a financial burden, anticipated to be more than £2000 to each STL operator.
Councillor Lobban said:“This comprehensive report highlights the housing crisis in Badenoch and Strathspey.
“It mentions residents who have a problem with short term lets, residents don’t contact the council they contact the police.
“It also talks about house prices. There is a development in Aviemore where the cheapest home is a one bed flat at £190,000 or a three-bed home at in excess of £350,000.
“These prices are completely unaffordable for local people, local people have been completely priced out of the market by the short-term lets boom.”
Councillor Pippa Hadley said: “You’ll have seen the application from Coylumbridge Hotel to move staff into caravans. When I worked at Coylumbridge they had accommodation of six houses on the ski road and were used exclusively for staff.
“Around 2016 those houses were sold and five further houses were developed and of those 11 houses you can now rent six of them for short-term lets with costs of £600 up to £2000 a week.
“This has exacerbated all of our local housing issues and I am contacted every week by our locals, some of them have become homeless and cannot find homeless accommodation in the area to keep their kids in school.
“We are not able to staff our ambulances, some of our schools, surgeries, we need to have some form of control over some people just moving into the area and just speculatively getting housing.
“I’d really like us to look at option three to give us some form of capability to change what we are seeing around us and keep our communities as communities.”
Bid is launched to have greater control in strath over holiday lets
