A local authority is calling for emergency legislation to help it and other councils stop the spread of Airbnbs and other short lets.

Edinburgh council recently failed in its legal bid to classify the entire city as a ‘control area’ and now wants the Scottish Government to rectify this by changing the law.

The council’s legal failure means that it is no longer able to demand that all landlords of ‘entire property’ short lets seek planning permission as part of their application for a licence: instead the council can only do this to those who began operating after the control area was introduced back in September 2022.

The council admits that the ruling means potentially thousands of applications will have to be assessed on a case-by-case basis to test if the change of use of a property has been ‘material’ – an exercise which may be difficult or impossible for the authority’s planners.

The council estimated this summer that some 4,000 properties within its boundaries were listed on short let platforms such as Airbnb. 

Now a cross-party motion – backed by the city’s SNP, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green parties – wants a change in the law to allow the designation of the whole city as a control area.

Planning chairperson Councillor James Dalgleish says: “Although we still have to decide or appeal or not – and I feel very much that’s open for discussion among all the political groups – it is my personal opinion that now is the time to move past this costly tit for tat appeals and counter-appeals and focus on what we need to do to make our policies work for residents.

“As a result of our policies we’re seeing properties that were being used for STLs now moving back into residential use. That could be someone’s new home. Because of this policy we can now really tackle issues that are short-term let-related such as anti-social behaviour, which I know many of our residents are worried about.”