'Small chink of light' in battle for more affordable homes in Badenoch and Strathspey
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A very long serving Cairngorms National Park Authority member has said proposed curbs on short term lets are the ‘first small chink of light in two decades’ on tackling the local housing crisis.
Members of the CNPA’s planning committee gave their backing to the Highland Council led short term lets control area for the strath when they met virtually at their latest meeting.
Park officials had recommended they fully embraced the proposals which will require STL owners to get a change of use permission to continue their business although there will be exemptions.
They were formulating their response ahead of tomorrow’s deadline on the public consultation on the draft policy.
CNPA chief planner Gavin Miles told the meeting: “The policy is aimed at trying to maximise the potential benefits of increasing the availability of housing on the market for the people who live and work here.
“In itself it is not going to reduce the number of short term let properties by very much but it may increase the number on the market which are available for people to buy and live in.”
He also explained that if and when the policy comes into effect, call-ins of any such planning applications would see the CNPA apply the same rules.
Urging support, committee member and Aviemore resident Willie McKenna said: “I have been sitting at this table for 20 years and the first week I was here I was bumping my gums about there being no houses for local workers.
“This is the first time I have ever seen a small chink of light on the way forward.
“Tourism has to be a round-thing.
“We have to have accommodation for visitors but we must also have good homes and wages for the people who are serving tourism or the industry will collapse here.
“There is a lot of history of tourism collapses so come on guys, we need affordable accommodation for the people who live and work here.”
There were no dissenters amongst the planning committee ranks but concerns were expressed about the potential economic impact on the strath – especially if the majority of lets became second homes.
Member Geva Blackett asked: “How are we going to measure the impact that this has on visitor numbers and potentially on what they are spending in the park?
“If people can not get the accommodation, is that going to send them to other areas – this could be elsewhere in the national park but how is this going to impact on the economy of Badenoch and Strathspey?”
Mr Miles said: “We are monitoring the number of applications and whether they are approved or refused so we will know how many properties have not been allowed to be short term lets. It is worth pointing out that there are quite a lot of properties that we gave consent for that were intended to be dwelling houses and that are not dwelling houses.”
He added: “I understood for some people who make a lot of money out of a short term let that this might be an issue for them.
“But there are still other applications coming forward for purpose built holiday accommodation in a variety of forms so we do not anticipate this is going to have a very significant effect on accommodation for visitors.”
But committee member John Kirk (top right) said: “As far as I see in our local communities properties are still selling as second homes. I think this policy will just increase second homes... It’s a very difficult one.”
Fellow member Bill Lobban, one of the architects of the STL policy in his role as local Highland councillor, said: “The whole ethos behind this is to try and increase the amount of affordable housing in the area.
“It is not there to annihilate the tourism industry.”
However, critics in the tourism and business sector have claimed that the policy will have little impact and lead to more properties becoming second homes contributing next to nothing to the strath's economy.
