As the national trade body representing Scotland’s self-catering sector, we are deeply concerned by Highland Council’s proposed region-wide short-term let (STL) planning control area. The plan adds to an already significant regulatory burden on tourism micro-businesses, without credible evidence that it will ease housing pressures.
We at the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC) strongly criticise plans for a Highland-wide planning control area for short-term lets (STLs) as councillors push for further regulations in a bid to tackle housing challenges in the region.
We highlight that the proposals would amount to “regulatory overkill” given the existing accumulated regulatory burden, not to mention the fact that STLs have a negligible effect on housing.
Highland Council will this week debate moves for the introduction of a STL planning control area across the entire region. Such a move will be in addition to existing planning and licensing requirements, as well as the control area for Badenoch and Strathspey.
The Council introduced a PCA for this specific ward back in March 2024, triggering over 200 applications, overwhelming their planning system, and creating confusion and huge expense to the sector. More than one year on, there is zero evidence that it has delivered a single additional home, and we argue that its application elsewhere would be “replicating failure”.
BiGGAR Economics, a respected Scottish think tank, recently found in every local authority area across Scotland, including Highland, economically inactive empty homes account for a larger proportion of total dwellings than secondary lets. Moreover, unlike empty homes, self-catering provided a £200m annual boost to the Highlands, supporting 6,786 jobs.
The latest statistics also suggest that there are over 7,500 empty and long-term empty homes across the Highlands. In addition, there are also larger structural issues at play: a lack of new supply, demographic shifts, and poor delivery of affordable homes.
It is clear that Highland housing needs will not be met by penalising tourism micro-businesses. Instead, they will be met by building homes, tackling second homes, and taking an evidence-led approach.
Fiona Campbell MBE, CEO of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, said:
“Hard-pressed self-catering operators will be experiencing more than a little sense of déjà vu as their sector is once again scapegoated for a shortage of homes. Recycling the same tired calls for even stricter controls on short-term lets, despite no evidence it will ease housing pressures, is regulatory overkill. They risk hammering a £200m self-catering sector that underpins Highland tourism.
The Highlands is an empty homes hotspot yet there is an obsessive one-track mind approach which continually blames short-term lets despite all evidence to the contrary. This includes the fact that the existing STL control area for Badenoch and Strathspey hasn’t produced a single additional affordable home. We would just be replicating failure on a larger scale.
Our message to councillors ahead of this weeks’ vote is clear: you won’t solve a housing crisis by initiating a crisis in Scottish tourism by decimating local businesses underpinning local economies. Attention must shift to the real causes of the housing crisis.”