Plea to Scottish Government to close loophole allowing short-term lets to operate without planning permission
‘We have got to help the council get a grip on this’ - Lorna Slater MSP
Edinburgh Green MSP Lorna Slater has called on the Scottish Government to close a loophole which allows short-term let landlords to dodge obtaining planning permission.
She raised the issue in the Scottish Parliament, saying some landlords were using the system to get around the city council’s efforts to regulate short-term lets.
Ms Slater, MSP for Edinburgh Central, said: “The licensing process requires the applicant to have only applied for planning permission, not to have obtained it, so they can withdraw their application for planning as soon as the licence is granted and go on to operate a STL without planning permission.”
And she asked: “Will the Scottish Government change the legislation to close the loophole and require that planning permission is obtained before a licence is granted, or will it allow for a licence to be revoked if planning permission is denied?”
Public Finance Minister Hannah Mary Goodlad replied: “Under existing licensing legislation, authorities may already refuse to consider a new licensing application if they believe that there has been a breach of planning control.
“Planning authorities at local authority level have powers under section 39 of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 to decline to determine any repeat application where similar applications have been previously refused, in order to try to close the loophole.”
But Ms Slater told the Evening News the minister had not answered her question. She said she had also been in correspondence with Social Justice and Housing Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville.
She said: “There seems to be a bit of buck-passing between the government and the council, where the council says the Scottish Government needs to fix the legislation, and the Scottish Government saying the council is not applying the legislation correctly.
“We really need to get to the bottom of this because there are stairwells in Edinburgh Central with nothing but short-term lets in them and they have have lock boxes all the way up the entrance-way.
“We have got to help the council get a grip on this, but until we understand what the problem is with the legislation we're just getting this buck-passing, which is very frustrating for residents.”
Chas Booth, Green councillor for Leith, and a member of Edinburgh's planning and licensing committees, said: “It is perfectly obvious to anyone that observes Edinburgh's planning committee that the legislation around Short Term Lets has a massive loophole which is being exploited by operators.
“The number of planning applications being withdrawn on the eve of committee has reached epidemic proportions, and the vast majority of these have been granted a secondary letting licence.
“What is most astonishing is, these applicants are not doing anything illegal or against the regulations, and yet they are avoiding planning control entirely.
“Just over four years on from the launch of Edinburgh's Short Term Let Control area, it's clear that hundreds of STLs are operating without planning consent.
“The Scottish Government needs to wake up and smell the coffee. This legislation has a loophole as big as a barn door, and they need to take urgent action to close it."
Councillor Joan Griffiths, Planning Convener, said: “We are aware of the issue raised by Lorna Slater MSP, which was the subject of a report considered Planning Committee on 9 September.
“As a result of this, I will be writing to the Scottish Government to request a meeting to discuss the matter and to seek solutions. In addition, a briefing will be provided to committee members in the coming months to advise on resources needed."