Short-term Holiday Lets: Planning

Joanna Cherry Excerpts
Tuesday 23rd May 2023

(1 year, 6 months ago)

Westminster Hall
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Joanna Cherry Portrait Joanna Cherry (Edinburgh South West) (SNP)
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairpersonship, Dame Caroline. I commend the hon. Member for Torbay (Kevin Foster) for securing this debate.

As a Member of Parliament representing an Edinburgh constituency, I am well aware of the impact that the explosion in short-term let properties has on local housing markets in tourist hotspots. The debate was prompted at least in part by the UK Government’s recently opened consultation on a registration scheme for short-term rental properties in England. I am pleased to say that the Scottish Government have been quicker to act on these issues. They have implemented legislation, and our scheme is now up and running in Scotland. That is but one example of a policy area where, despite limited powers of devolution, tangible measures to tackle the cost of living crisis and the cost of housing are being implemented in Scotland.

Anthony Mangnall Portrait Anthony Mangnall
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Will the hon. and learned Lady give way?

Joanna Cherry Portrait Joanna Cherry
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I want to develop my point. Licensing and planning rules have already been introduced by the Scottish Government for the city of Edinburgh, and owners of short-term lets have until October to comply with the changes. Edinburgh became the first let control area in July 2022, and a smaller control area is being planned in the highlands. The First Minister also recently proposed allowing councils to double the council tax paid on empty and second homes.

The supply of housing and the impact on rents for local people has been well articulated during this debate. Housing matters are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, but as a Westminster MP, I often get requests from constituents who are struggling to afford rented property. It is not just in tourist cities such as Edinburgh that these problems are acute; rural Scotland also faces housing shortages as a result of the growth in the short-term rental sector. As in rural areas of England, that has an acute impact on the provision of local services, particularly health services; nurses and carers struggle to find accommodation in many of Scotland’s rural communities, and in many areas of the highlands and islands.

The shortage of affordable rental properties also impacts directly on the tourism sector, as many workers simply cannot find anywhere affordable to live. In the islands of Scotland, there are reported cases of many of those important tourism sector workers being forced to sofa surf. In some cases, they have been advised to wait until after 6 o’clock to try to book last-minute accommodation on platforms such as Airbnb—the very platforms that are preventing them from accessing housing in the first place.

Many communities are at risk of being hollowed out by an oversaturation of short-term lets, which not only drive up rent and squeeze out long-term renters by reducing the supply of housing, but cause problems for neighbours and put additional strain on council services. I know from my own casework that a problem that originally affected only Edinburgh’s medieval old town has spread across the entire city, and it is not just about soaring rents and the scarcity of properties for rent. Long-term residents face living with constantly changing groups of tourists, who put pressure on the building or street’s communal waste bins, hold regular and noisy parties, or simply check out early or very late for flights, banging their suitcases down common stairwells at all times of the day and night. In some buildings in the old town of Edinburgh, almost all the flats are now Airbnbs, while the last few remaining residents feel squeezed out and endure constant noise, so the provisions introduced by the Scottish Government and City of Edinburgh Council will be extremely important.

The removal of a large number of properties from long-term rent has an impact on the wider economy, and a city like Edinburgh cannot grow without homes for workers. Living, breathing communities are what make tourist destinations attractive. Four years ago, when the Scottish Government concluded their first consultation on short-term lets, CNN cited the city of Edinburgh, the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, Dubrovnik and Iceland as famous destinations that

“can no longer cope with their own popularity”.

That is why City of Edinburgh Council has produced a new tourism strategy, which notes that:

“One of Edinburgh’s most distinctive features is that established residential communities are to be found right across the city, including in the city centre.”

Our council strategy goes on to say:

“The quality of life for residents and the attractiveness of Edinburgh as a destination are inextricably linked. The one cannot suffer at the expends of the other.”

Anthony Mangnall Portrait Anthony Mangnall
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I am sorry to interrupt the hon. and learned Member’s speech. I congratulate her enormously on the proposals that have been put forward in Edinburgh; there is a great deal that we can learn across the country. I just wonder whether there are any forecasts out there of how these proposals are likely to affect the long-term letting market. I know it is a bit early, but it would be helpful to understand whether the measures being introduced in Edinburgh could be replicated elsewhere.

--- Later in debate ---
Joanna Cherry Portrait Joanna Cherry
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I know that City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government are monitoring what happens in Edinburgh, because we hope that the scheme will be rolled out across the country. I am sure that information will be available in due course. The scheme has also been welcomed by the chair of the Edinburgh Hotels Association, which represents 54 hotels covering nearly 9,000 bedrooms across the city. He said that

“the increase of short-term lets in sensitive urban and rural locations does nothing to enhance the visitor experience. A licensing scheme can help balance this, ensuring that our city and country continues to enjoy the benefits of tourism”.

As hon. Members have mentioned, licensing can also deal with safety issues.

The whole of the city of Edinburgh has now been designated as a let control area, and others are planned for the Scottish highlands. The Scottish Government will also go further by giving councils powers to ensure that tourism works for communities by introducing a transient visitor levy, which will give councils discretionary powers to apply a levy on visitors so that they can respond to local circumstances more effectively and develop, support or sustain the visitor economy.

A huge part of our current cost of living crisis across the United Kingdom is that people on low incomes—key workers, and also students, who are our future—face an acute housing crisis. I welcome this debate, and I look forward to the Minister’s response, but I urge the Conservative Government to follow the Scottish Government’s and put in place bold measures to try to protect ordinary households from profiteering in the housing market. The action needed to tackle the impact of soaring numbers of short-term holiday lets on the housing crisis is now overdue. I am proud to say that, certainly in this policy area, the Scottish Government and the City of Edinburgh Council have a very good story to tell.