Short Term Lets: Consultation on a licensing scheme and planning control areas in Scotland

Sharing Economy UK has responded to the Scottish Government’s Consultation on a licensing scheme and planning control areas for short term lets in Scotland. We worked proactively with the 2017/18 Scottish Expert Advisory Panel on the Collaborative Economy and welcome the opportunity to respond to this consultation’s proposals.

Our response covers:

The impact of the Coronavirus pandemic

1. Our support for defining short-term lets and thresholds of activity

• A proportionately tiered regulatory framework of number of nights let

• Exclude individual rooms in primary homes from the definition

2. Absent evidence base for control area regulations

• Introduce and enforce change of use planning permission

• Permitted development rights and temporary licenses

• Evaluating Scottish Government interventions and pilot Edinburgh first

3. The scope of the licensing order

• A centralised national registration system applying in tiers

• Housing issues and home sharing

Download and read the full response here

Sharing Economy UK has also signed a letter alongside 38 prominent leaders across the Scottish Tourism Industry calling on the Scottish Government to delay their plans which threaten to damage the home sharing and short-term letting sector at a crucial time.