Plans set to be approved today for short term lets control area for Badenoch and Strathspey
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Highland Council is forging ahead with establishing a short-term let control area for Badenoch and Strathspey by targetting a start date next March despite acknowledging the policy ‘carries the risk of legal challenge’.
The move for the control zone has been prompted by the overwhelming number of rental properties locally and impact this is having on affordable homes for local residents and workers.
But doubts have shrouded the issue since Edinburgh City Council was required to change its ‘non-statutory planning policy’ after a recent ruling by the Court of Session following a challenge by those in the short term let sector.
That meant council officials had to take serious heed of that verdict and iron out legal issues regarding the application of the control area retrospectively – a major obstacle.
Members of the full council are now being recommended to give their backing today at headquarters in Inverness to the updated policy.
However, a report by principal solicitor Karen Lyons and Matthew Hilton, a graduate planner, highlights the risk of legal challenge from the short-term lets sector and warns: “The council should expect close scrutiny of its decisions on this topic.”
Officials determined that according to the court actions and legislation it largely depends on whether the ‘change of use to short-term letting’ is considered ‘material’.
If it is determined that it is not material then ‘existing short-term lets within the control area will not need to apply for planning permission to continue to operate’ which supporters of the control area may feel undermines its purpose.
There are currently 215 applications pending for short term lets within the proposed control area for the strath.
New applications would ‘automatically’ need planning permission: “Once a STLCA (short term let control area) has been established for the proposed use of a dwelling house as a short-term let’.
Should the proposals for control area be agreed by members later today – though there are concerns the 24 agenda items for the full council meeting could run over time – then the establishment of the Badenoch and Strathspey control area would happen on Monday March 4, 2024.
Before that the notice would be published in January 2024 so as to avoid the festive season and that would then be followed by the previously agreed information sessions now earmarked for January and February.
Figures also in the report going before council reveal the extent of the number of short term lets in the strath.
Under separate plans for a licensing scheme of STLs, the report states that by mid-November the council had received 786 applications from the local area.
The officials point out in their report: “The number of licences applied for continues to justify members’ concern about the impact on market housing and validates promotion of the short-term let control area for Ward 20 (Badenoch and Strathspey).”
n The full report can be read at item 14 via https://www.highland.gov.uk/meetings/meeting/4905/highland_council
