Edinburgh is to become Scotland’s first ‘Short-Term Let Control Area’, after the Scottish Government approved the City Council’s proposed tightening of holiday let planning rules.

The control area is intended to preserve the character of neighbourhoods, prevent short-term lets in inappropriate places or types of building, and help ensure homes are used to their best effect, said the Scottish Government. With a few exceptions, changing the use of an entire residential home in the city to short-term letting will automatically require planning permission.

‘Edinburgh was the first local authority in Scotland to propose a Short-Term Let Control Area and Scottish Government approval represents a major step forward’, said Housing Secretary Shona Robison.

‘We have committed to give local authorities the powers to address concerns about the impact of commercial short-term letting in their communities, should they want to do that’.

City of Edinburgh Council Leader Cammy Day was more pointed in his comments.

‘For far too long, too many homes have been lost in our city to the holiday market. In fact, around a third of all short term lets in Scotland are here in the capital, so their associated issues of safety, anti-social behaviour and noise have a detrimental effect on many of our residents. We will now progress implementing the changes and the next step should be looking at whether we can apply a cap on numbers, too’.