Fife Council has launched a consultation on short-term lets which ends on 8th September. The questionnaire seeks views on whether to establish control areas for this type of accommodation which overwhelmingly is located in the mainline housing stock.
World-wide, short-term let websites, of which airbnb is the best known, advertise holiday accommodation in areas attractive for tourists. Many cities and communities have sought to limit these because of concentrations of short-term lets can cause shortage of housing for locals and increased house prices. Communities can be adversely affected as schools and other services are reduced and the character of traditional communities changed irrevocably.
In Fife, most areas presently experiencing the major adverse effects of short-term lets are the coastal communities. Housing shortages there are exacerbated by concentrations of holiday homes occupied by the owners for only part of the year. In St Andrews, the availability of housing, particularly affordable family housing is also affected by the conversion of about 800 homes into houses of multiple occupation (HMO’s) occupied by students.
The rapid expansion of the short-term let market in the last few years has added significantly to the St Andrews housing shortage with 704 licences either issued or pending approval. And the vast majority are classed as’secondary lettings’ i.e. they are not the owner’s home but an additional property being let out as a holiday rental. Taken together, short-term holiday lets and HMO’s account for 20% of the housing stock which would otherwise be available to the community.
Fife Council was initially reluctant to introduce Control Areas which would help to regulate the exponential increase in short-term lets. Control Areas would mean that short-term lets would need to obtain planning permission, although existing short-term lets would be exempt. However, when a recommendation to do nothing- ie., retain the status quo, was considered at the Council’s Cabinet Committee, this “no action” proposal was voted down, and the current consultation agreed.
There has been little publicity for this consultation, held during the major holiday season, and it was only to be found on-line. The St Andrews Community Council took the initiative to ensure that paper copies were available at the town library, but it is not certain that other libraries will have these.
There has been a a concerted campaign by short-term let operators organisation to promote a “no restriction” policy, and it is important for the voice of community members to be heard.
The Scottish Government sets out good practice for public consultations. This includes a requirement to provide enough information to ensure that those consulted understand the issues and can give informed responses, Including validated impact assessments of the costs and benefits of the options being considered when possible.
This consultation is lamentably short of information to assist respondents in making an informed response. For instance, the number of short-term let licences in each community and those in the pipeline is missing. While the consultation material says that decisions on short-term lets would be judged by planning policy, Fife Council has no local plan policy on this issue. So, it is difficult to know what you are voting for.
Nevertheless, it is important that the community has a voice in this issue so, and even with such little time left, we would urge all community members to respond to this consultation.
The consultation can be found on-line at: https://haveyoursay.fife.gov.uk/place/short-term-lets/ or Google ‘Fife Council Citizen Space’ and look for Short Term Lets Control Areas.
