Edinburgh council takes no enforcement action despite survey finding that only one in 500 short-term lets had planning permission

‘Totally inadequate response’

The survey asked residents to report properties being used as short-term lets

COUNCIL chiefs are under fire after deciding not to take enforcement action following a survey which found only one out of nearly 500 properties identified as short-term lets had proper planning permission.

The survey, spearheaded by Lothian Green MSP Andy Wightman, asked Capital residents to pass on addresses which were being operated on a commercial basis with no permanent resident. Some 477 properties were highlighted, many of them in tenements and most of them in the Old Town, New Town and Leith.

Investigations then revealed only one had obtained planning permission for use as a short-term let.

Mr Wightman said it showed a “staggering pattern of unlawful activity” and he sent his findings to the city council

But now a report to the city’s planning committee recommends only that the findings be noted.

It says 380 of the properties had not previously been reported to the council and adds officials could write to these addresses asking for further information, but warns that without details of the property owner such action usually has little success.

The report says launching a more detailed investigation of the 380 properties would more than double the enforcement caseload and and lead to a delay in other enforcement action.

And the report concludes: “The planning service will continue to pursue existing investigations with a focus on those considered to cause the greatest harm to existing residents”.

Chas Booth, the Greens’ planning and housing spokesman on the city council, plans to challenge the report when the issue comes up at committee on Wednesday.

He said: “This report effectively says the council will do nothing in response to Andy Wightman’s detailed dossier of potentially illegal activity from short term let landlords in the capital. This a totally inadequate response, when we know that these holiday lets lead to a loss of homes, drive up rents and often cause misery for residents living next to them.

“At the very least, the council should work out how much it would cost to pursue the owners of these properties and put a price on enforcement work. For the price of a letter and a stamp, it’s possible that some of these properties could be brought back as homes, to the benefit of local residents.”

He said the report underlined the lack of proper regulation for short-term lets. “The Scottish Government needs to urgently introduce new powers for local authorities to effectively regulate holiday lets so we can take action where they blight communities.”

Planning convener Neil Gardiner said: “We’ll always use the existing powers we have through planning enforcement to investigate cases reported to us as we’re very clear that we want to protect residential amenity and to ensure that properties are returned to being people’s homes.

“This is very resource intensive and we don’t want to divert resources away from priority cases where people have given us evidence of where short term lets are having a significant impact on the amenity of neighbouring residents.

“The council has a cross-party member-officer group, working to achieve the best outcomes for residents. This approach has been successful in lobbying Scottish Government for actions which are now in progress. We’re continuing to pro-actively work with the Scottish Government to introduce new licensing and planning powers which will give us far greater control over the sector in the future.”

He said a recent consultation on “Choices for City Plan 2030” specifically asked people whether Edinburgh should be a short term let control zone.

“We’re hoping to have draft regulations from the Scottish Government on short term let control areas later this year and expect them to come into effect at some point next year. We will implement these measures swiftly.

“We would urge citizens to continue to tell us of any short term lets that are operating without planning permission and are causing harm as we will use all the powers available to us to enforce the legislation and close them down.”

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