Question reference: S6W-23067
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 20 November 2023
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Current status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 5 December 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had regarding the suspension of home sharing and house swapping from the short-term lets licensing scheme.
Answer
On 27 October 2023 I wrote to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee about the scope of a 2024 update on implementation, which confirms that the purpose of the update is not to amend the types of licence i.e. home-sharing, home-letting and secondary let because it is important that safety standards apply to all visitor accommodation. I have had no discussions which commit to suspending either of these accommodation types from the scheme.
We have been responsive throughout our implementation of the short-term let licensing scheme. We consulted three times over three years and engaged extensively to develop the detail of the scheme, which was scrutinised by Parliament prior to its approval in January 2022. Since local schemes became operational in October 2022, thousands of short-term let hosts and operators have applied for home-sharing, home-letting and secondary let licences under this scheme.
A copy of the letter is available on the Scottish Parliament website at: https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/local-gov/correspondence/2023/shorttermlets27oct.pdf