Question reference: S6W-05411
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 24 December 2021
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 24 January 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many bed and breakfasts it estimates will close as a result of the implementation of new regulations for them and short-term lets.
Answer
The licensing scheme will introduce a system to ensure basic safety standards are being adhered to across short-term let accommodation in Scotland, the definition of which includes bed and breakfast businesses, as well as guest houses.
We have met with interested parties throughout development of the scheme, including meetings with the Scottish Guest House and B&B Alliance and Fergus Ewing MSP and one of his constituents, a local B&B owner. The Scottish Bed & Breakfast Association were also part of the Scottish Government’s short-term lets stakeholder working group until they resigned on 4 August 2021.
Many short-term let hosts and operators will already be following the mandatory safety conditions as a matter of compliance with existing law or best practice. We do not consider them to be onerous. We do not anticipate the scheme will have a detrimental impact on responsible operators. Instead we consider the scheme could boost overall demand for short-term lets by providing consumers with increased confidence in the functioning of the short-term lets market in Scotland, which will help to clamp down on dodgy operators, unsafe accommodation and poor practice.
Scotland’s ability to have sufficient accommodation options to host international events is accounted for, with licensing authorities having wide discretion in granting temporary exemptions or temporary licences within the powers of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 and the Licensing Order. We will update and publish guidance on granting temporary exemptions and temporary licences, involving our stakeholder working group.
We have already committed to working with local authorities to undertake a review of short-term let activity in hotspot areas in summer 2023, to ensure the wider sector is still healthy and unintended consequences have been avoided, and to identify whether any further measures are required to control numbers.