The recommendation to the Fife Council Cabinet Committee to ignore the problems caused by increasing short term lets, such as AirBnb in St Andrews and the East Neuk has been met with disbelief by the Confederation of St Andrews Residents Association (CSARA).
Chair of CSARA David Middleton has criticised the report going to the committee on 8th January as being an inadequate response to a severe problem experienced by residents of the affected settlements and of placing the interests of short-term let landlords above that of residents.
A consultation carried out by the Council showed that 82 of the responses to the consultation were residents. The actual number of responses was not given, but they came from the whole of Fife whether or not there a problem in their area. Nevertheless, of these responders fifty two percent considered that the level of short term lets was “very high” or” high”. Sixty percent of residents stated that they considered short term lets undermined their sense of community or quality life, siting a plethora of adverse effects of caused by concentrations of short term lets which included impacts on residential amenity, disturbances and exacerbating the shortage of family housing with and pricing locals out of the housing market.
Despite active lobbying by The Association of Self-Caterers, just over six percent of the consultation responses were from short-term let operators and almost 78 percent of these opposed short term control areas in Fife. Their Association promoted research which came up with a statement that there was significant economic benefits resulting from short term lets but this was contradicted by independent research carried out on behalf of Edinburgh Council when considering the establishment of short term lates which identified a negative economic impact when family homes contributing to employment and local taxes were replaced by short term lets which relied heavily on poorly paid employees. In certain circumstances short term lets can avoid paying council tax or business tax.
Edinburgh and many European cities have introduced limitations on the number of short-term lets including AirBnB properties even although the impact on large cities was not as extreme as that being experiences in small communities.
While the East Neuk communities have the highest level of short term lets in North East Fife, St Andrews has the added issue of approximately 800 private HMO’s housing students. Adding to the housing pressure in the East Neuk and St Andrews are over 1000 second homes.
Government guidance requires that decisions in this area should be informed by the best use of scarce housing resources. Short term lets are available during the peak summer months in university and private residences. The need to balance community needs with economic benefits must be carefully considered in developing policies to regulate short term lets. In the committee report there is no evidence that such an assessment has been conducted – just an unevidenced belief that short-term lets have benefits which trump the overwhelming community view that they cause severe damage to affected settlements.
The Committee report suggests that even if control zones were established, they would have negligible effect and existing short-term lets would not be subject to the policy. This is a self-defeating statement as it suggests that a free for all and lack of control is the best solution, when the present level of these establishments is already causing difficulties. Fife Council is also lacking in a planning policy for short- term lets, relying instead on a generalised government policy which does not deal with the unique difficulties and conditions evident in North East Fife Communities. Edinburgh’s Control Area Policy has been most effective in managing the overload of short-term lets in the city.
The report to committee also bases it recommendation on the assumption that there will be slight increase in the number of short-term let developments in the future. This is dreaming, in one week in December 2035 there were planning applications for change of use of 29 flats to short-term lets.
The report to committee is not fit for purpose and should be withdrawn.
