Short Term Lets In Highland to Require A Licence To Operate At A Cost Of Between £300 to £600
24th June 2022
Business operating in the short term letting market may think this is the worst time to add more cost to running what for many is a small business.
The Highland Council has set in motion the plans required by the Scottish government to control who can an cannot operate in the region.
The new rules will apply to all Bed and Breakfasts, guest houses, self-catering properties including Air B & B and even glamping pods and yurts.
The charges will be another hit on hard pressed businesses at between £300 and £600. The application that are estimated to be around 10,000 business will also be referred to police, fire, environmental health and planning officers. The public will also be allowed to object if they have valid reason to the applications.
This new legislation was said to be the biggest change in licencing for many years.
HC is accepting applications from 1 October. They must have applied by 1 April 2023 and be licences by 1 July 2024.
For existing short-term lets, the licence deadline is 1 April 2023.
The Scottish Parliament added the new law under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 on 19 January 2022. It applies to all Scottish councils.
Possibly it could be argued a victim of unintended consequences of pressure from many sources over the fast expanding Air B and B properties in many places depriving local people of houses making rents more expensive and pushing up property prices in rural areas.
It remains to be seen how it will affect the operators short term lets once the look at the additional costs.
See the full paper discussed at the licensing committee
Webcast
A webcast of the meeting can be seen HERE
Related Businesses
Related Articles
Kate Lackie, Malcolm MacLeod and Allan Gunn have been appointed as Assistant Chief Executives with The Highland Council. Convener of the Council, Cllr Bill Lobban said: "I am delighted to say that Kate Lackie, Malcolm MacLeod and Allan Gunn have been appointed as Assistant Chief Executives with The Highland Council.
As intimated in Highland Council's budget plan, a new senior management structure is to be implemented following approval by Council 14th March. It reconfigures the senior management team into two layers, rather than three and brings Highland Council into line with other benchmarked authorities.
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.
The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate. The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate.
Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding. This is to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
The Highland Council is delighted to confirm a highly successful second year for Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights between Wick and Aberdeen. The period from April 2023 to March 2024 has seen a substantial increase in passenger numbers, with several months seeing over 1,000 passengers using the service, and overall the service has seen year on year growth of 25%.
Members of Highland Council, who met on Thursday 14 March 2024, approved a corporate Digital Ambition, which has been designed to deliver significant organisational change across Council services, recognising the current priorities within the organisation. The Strategy, which is embedded within the wider Council Delivery Plan, has been developed to focus attention and resources on areas of change which will deliver the greatest benefit to the Council.
The Council remains committed to supporting mentoring in our schools, including the support that is currently delivered through the MCR Pathways programme. Highland Council is currently undertaking a review of Employability Support provided by a number of different council services and how these relate to the work carried out by external partners and in our schools.
Highland Council members have considered and agreed a revised draft Highland Outcome Improvement Plan. The partnership plan has been reviewed and updated by the Community Planning Partnership.
