Scottish holiday homes law 'botched' compared to England's

While city centre and rural homes availability is among highly important factors involved, bed and breakfast and self-catering operators have argued their impact on housing stock, for example, is not an issue.

Many across the tourism industry were surprised when Holyrood opted to include B&Bs. Now Westminster has put forward its proposals for consultation, which do not include such professional operators and self-catering holiday home businesses.

It reads like it is referencing Scotland in a "what not to do" manner. Here, industry insiders say many have simply quit as a result of what is described as an over-bureaucratic and costly system.

Industry insiders say have decided not to continue in the trade (Image: Getty Images)

"Given the government’s priority is to deliver a proportionate regulatory response, the focus of the registration scheme in England will be on short-term lets only, and not other types of guest accommodation such as hotels, B&Bs and professional providers of self-catering accommodation," Westminster said.

"A scheme focussed solely on short-term lets will help drive adherence to standards and provide a platform to address negative community and housing market effects.

"It would also ensure that all providers of short-term lets can be obligated to provide safe, quality assured accommodation, as other providers of guest accommodation must currently do through existing regulation and quality assurance schemes."

This has been a consistent argument from within the Scottish tourism industry.

READ MORE: Scotland's crackdown on Airbnb-style holiday homes hits legal buffers

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre, which provides background and analysis to MSPs, said: "The Scottish Government argues that including bed and breakfast accommodation within the licensing regime ensures a level playing field, requiring anyone that lets out rooms within their only or principal home (regardless of whether they offer breakfast or not) to obtain a licence.

"This ensures that guests can be confident all such accommodation complies with the relevant safety standards."

Fiona Campbell, chief executive of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, said: “Holyrood’s politicians often pride themselves on leading the UK on public policy but nobody is copying Scotland’s botched example.

"Our friends in the EU are looking at a simple, low-cost, self-assessed notification scheme, while the UK Government are taking a more balanced and proportionate approach through a mandatory registration scheme for England, whilst introducing a new planning use class and transferring all existing operators to this new use class."

She also said: "Time and time again, the ASSC has proactively supplied fair, evidenced and legally sound policy recommendations to help the Scottish Government effectively regulate short-term lets.

"The frustrating point is that industry wants to be regulated, and policymakers have the tools at their disposal to act, but the Scottish Government isn’t listening. The much-vaunted ‘New Deal for Business’ is falling at the first hurdle when a £1bn sector finds its proposals brushed aside."

How both schemes look in the longer term remains to be seen, but here we notice the difference between a regulatory scheme that is considered an acceptable solution and one that some are immovable in their views is unfair and unhelpful.

In another major point of contention, Holyrood has been criticised for not providing 75% relief from business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure sectors as is done in England and Wales, although it insists its reckoning is worth more to Scottish businesses.

A major travel agency chief has added her voice to those claiming firms in Scotland are at a disadvantage relative to their English counterparts.

Barrhead Travel president Jacqueline Dobson, in her first speech as president of the Scottish Passenger Agents’ Association, launched a broadside at the Scottish Government, business editor Ian McConnell writes.

She hammered home her view that firms in the sector in Scotland were at a disadvantage because of "the fact that rates relief provided south of the Border is denied in Scotland".

Elsewhere, the profit-laden "big five" banks are "failing" savers, writes deputy business editor Scott Wright in his Thursday column.

"We are in the midst of another reporting season for the UK’s major banks - and once more the scale of the profits being made is eye-catching to say the least."

Also this week, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre said it has "come full circle" since the onset of the pandemic to report record revenues and profits in 2023, business correspondent Kristy Dorsey reports.