@ASSCnews has written to the @scottishgreens with an invitation to work together on short-term let regulatory reform. We welcome scrutiny of the current system. We also believe that scrutiny must lead to practical solutions. Our members have invested time and money in licensing, yet established, licensed businesses face uncertainty through inconsistent planning decisions. Meanwhile, some unlicensed operators continue to trade, undermining those who have worked to comply. We have consistently called for licensing and planning to be separated, alongside a dedicated planning category for self-catering through a new Use Classes Order. We need fair arrangements for established businesses, clear rules and effective enforcement. We recognise the importance of addressing housing pressures and sustaining communities. We also recognise the contribution self-catering makes to those communities, supporting jobs, local businesses and Edinburgh’s Festivals. We have requested a meeting with the Scottish Greens to explore common ground and help resolve the impasse between the @Edinburgh_CC and the @scotgov. We are ready to turn that dialogue into workable reform. Read our open letter: assc.co.uk/news/assc-publish… #SelfCatering #ScottishTourism #RegulatoryReform #ASSC @st_alliance @scothospgroup @ScotTories @ScottishLabour @scotlibdems @Scot_Reform

Accurate data matters, particularly when it is being used to shape housing policy. We cannot accept an analysis that combines different categories of short-term letting, including home sharing, and presents them as secondary lets. Our latest analysis of the council’s register identifies 1,443 licensed secondary-let properties, representing approximately 0.5% of Edinburgh’s housing stock. We also question what happened to the repeatedly cited estimates of 12,000 to 14,000 short-term lets by The @Edinburgh_CC. If those figures were accurate and comparable, we should now be seeing evidence of more than 10,500 properties returning to residential use. Where is that evidence? We cannot treat a reduction in reported numbers as proof that permanent homes have been delivered. Read more / Listen to the radio / watch the TV segment: assc.co.uk/news/assc-respond… @ASSCnews

** Yesterday you didn't need planning permission. Tomorrow you may need it. Our policies have changed since you started your business, so you might not get it now…. ** The gap between @argyllandbute Council's assurances on its proposed short-term let control areas and its published licensing policy is deeply troubling. The Council says existing operators will not be retrospectively affected. Yet its licensing policy expressly anticipates existing licence holders having to apply for planning permission or a Certificate of Lawfulness after designation. Refusal could mean their licence is refused, varied or revoked. I read that as a clear route to affecting established businesses through licensing. How are we supposed to reconcile those two positions? The Council’s papers also models a hypothetical 10% reduction in existing self-catering properties, approximately 140 properties, returning to residential use. Whose businesses does the Council envisage closing? Whose livelihoods are at risk? There is absolutely no evidence that these proposals will deliver affordable permanent homes. A business closing does not guarantee that its property becomes an affordable home, or even a permanently occupied one. If the Council provides definitive, published confirmation that designation will not trigger blanket demands for existing, unchanged businesses to prove their historic planning status, including at licence renewal, we will welcome it. Until then, I cannot advise established operators to take comfort from the claim that this only affects new proposals. I believe operators have every reason to be worried, and every reason to respond. Please respond to the consultation by 15 November 2026: argyll-bute.gov.uk/planning-… I urge everyone affected to ask for evidence, clear safeguards and an honest explanation of what these proposals mean for existing businesses. Respond to the consultation. It is critical. #SelfCatering #ArgyllAndBute #ScottishTourism #SupportLocalBusinesses @ASSCnews @st_alliance @Argyll_IslesApp

Enough. Is. Enough. scottishbusinessnews.net/arg… @ASSCnews @SaveSCScotland