Scotland
Joined January 2023
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- Followers761
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SaveSelfCatering retweeted
So either:
1. @Edinburgh_CC made up the 12-14k to gain traction for their vendetta, or
2. It was correct and there are now 10k+ homes available( so why is there still a housing crisis?) OR
3. There are thousands of STLs not engaging with the system at all.
So why are @CllrChasBooth et al relentlessly chasing 1443 properties who have tried to engage in the licensing system in good faith? This is such a blatant vendetta for optics: they don’t care about the unregulated black market at all.
Greens’ 12,000 short-term let fantasy leaves £9.6m levy black hole — licensed operators left holding the blame! @EdinburghGreens @scottishgreens @EdinburghLabour @Edinburgh_CC @heraldscotland @EdinburghTories @ASSCnews @FionaCampbell74 @SaveSCScotland @BBCScotlandNews @scotgov
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
Queuing in a stairwell to even access arrivals. A new low for the ever awful on arrivals @EDI_Airport. You say you’re investing but arrivals getting steadily worse & a national embarrassment. You’re a continued shame on Scotland. @TravWriters
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
Greens’ 12,000 short-term let fantasy leaves £9.6m levy black hole — licensed operators left holding the blame! @EdinburghGreens @scottishgreens @EdinburghLabour @Edinburgh_CC @heraldscotland @EdinburghTories @ASSCnews @FionaCampbell74 @SaveSCScotland @BBCScotlandNews @scotgov
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
@EdinburghGreens & @scottishgreens - using their buzzword 'loophole' to try to shut down licenced businesses operating before the control zone but ignoring unlicenced STLs with no planning & avoiding the vistor levy! Wee Chas & his vendetta! We see him & soon everyone else will!
Surely the more shocking statistic or ‘loophole’ if you will, would be the amount of StLs who haven’t engaged in the biased system at all and don’t have a licence and don’t pay the accommodation tax? @CllrChasBooth doesn’t seem interested in that.
Any statistics for noise disturbance? No? Didn’t think so, because the vast majority come from long term residents not STLs. That pesky data doesn’t fit this ‘loophole’ narrative does it Chas? It’s a #blanketban by @Edinburgh_CC #SaveSC
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
Have to agree. Locally owned & run self catering is being axed at pace by @Edinburgh_CC while big biz moves in, extracts & no new affordable homes get built. Instead more foreign controlled PBSA & aparthotels exempt from rules. Worst of all outcomes. #SaveSC
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
Please listen to the industry @hmtreasury - we have been clobbered enough. @JohnHealey_MP says his budget priority will be growth, by freeing businesses from unnecessary burdens. These industry asks would do that:
Breaking news: a tax on a tax. @hmtreasury confirms #VAT will be charged on top of the overnight visitor levy. The fix is simple: remove VAT from the levy. With the #Budget2026 on 28 October, that is our first ask.
🏛️ #OVL answers are in: no national impact assessment, no cap in law and no guaranteed local share. With decisions left to Mayors, members should engage early, and we will keep pressing for statutory safeguards.
💷 @hmtreasury puts VAT from hospitality and accommodation at £24bn a year. A lower rate pays back more than the Treasury assumes. The #Budget2026 on 28 October is the moment to act.
📊 @TourismMI's State of Destination-Making 2026 report shows destination organisations are delivering more than ever, and around half do it with five or fewer full-time staff. Properly resourced destinations are key to growth. #VisitorEconomy
✈️ Inbound is holding up: 40.8 million overseas visits to the UK in 2025, more than in 2024. Get the pricing right on VAT and the levy, and the #VisitorEconomy can deliver the growth the UK needs by 2030.
📅 On 27 October our Chair, @josscroft, gives evidence to the @DCMS Committee tourism inquiry, with @bernarddonoghue and Alistair Handyside MBE.
We are in the room and on the record. #VisitorEconomy
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
Don't expect ANY guest cleans e.g. mop & vacuum. They leave the place as they find it. Cleaners will vacuum, mop, empty the dishwasher, organise dirty linen gets washed & new linens & towels put on beds & in bathrooms for new guests. It's that simple. It's called self catering.
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
@scottishgreens @EdinburghGreens @Ross_Greer @Gillian_Mackay1 @TheGreenParty @lornaslater @CllrChasBooth @edinburghpaper @EdinburghLive @TheStudentPaper @EdinReporter @heraldscotland
📣 ASSC Publishes Open Letter to Scottish Greens Calling for Short-Term Let Regulatory Reform
The ASSC has published an open letter to the Scottish Green Party, calling for a collaborative approach to resolving ongoing issues with Scotland’s short-term let regulatory framework.
The letter highlights the uncertainty facing licensed businesses due to inconsistent planning decisions and calls for clearer, fairer regulation, including a dedicated planning category for self-catering.
The ASSC has also requested a meeting with the Scottish Greens to discuss a practical way forward and help resolve the ongoing impasse between the City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government.
📄 Read the open letter and full press release: assc.co.uk/news/assc-publish…
@FionaCampbell74 @SaveSCScotland @scottishgreens
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
@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
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
The @ASSCnews wholeheartedly backs the @heraldscotland’s 'Reset the Rates' campaign.
Self-caterers across Scotland opened their rates bills this year to increases they never saw coming, with many seeing their valuations more than double when nothing about their business had changed. These are small family businesses, often one or two properties run by people who live in the community, and they cannot just pass rises like that onto guests. A national assessor would end the lottery of where in Scotland you happen to operate, and protection against sudden, unaffordable jumps would let people plan ahead instead of wondering whether they can carry on. Visitors don’t just stay in a self-catering property; they help fill the local pub and provide footfall for local shops and restaurants. All of that depends on the people hosting them staying in business.
Thanks to @ScottWWright for highlighting this critical issue.
assc.co.uk/news/assc-backs-t…
@MCrothall @SMontgomerySHG @st_alliance @scothospgroup @FSB_Scotland @ukhscotland
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
📣 Fiona Campbell Calls for Clarity on Self-Catering Regulation
ASSC Chief Executive Fiona Campbell appeared on Reporting Scotland on BBC News at 7pm last night to discuss the ongoing challenges facing self-catering businesses in Edinburgh, including the relationship between short-term let licensing and planning permission.
Speaking about the current system, Fiona said:
💬 “We're not afraid of regulation at all in any way, shape, or form. However, it has to work and it has to be fit for purpose.”
She highlighted the need for “clarity, consistency, and certainty” for professional operators, explaining that licensing and planning serve two distinct purposes and should operate separately.
Fiona also called for a more constructive approach to resolving the issues facing the sector, with a system that supports responsible businesses while addressing the concerns of local residents.
🎥 Watch the interview before it expires at 7pm tonight. Fiona’s interview begins at approximately 12 minutes into the recording: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0…
#ScottishTourism #SelfCatering @FionaCampbell74 @SaveSCScotland @st_alliance @BBCScotlandNews
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
This really is some serious overstepping of boundaries by @Airbnb ... Stick to selling the dates, take your pound of flesh & leave businesses to operate as they think appropriate to circumstances.
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
So using data from @Edinburgh_CC , there has been a return to residential use of 10,500 properties that were STLs. Job done, no? Maybe focus on social housing now? Unless this really is a #blanketban and you’re going after the last 1400 until we are all gone: where will visitors stay then?
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
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
Who'd have thought - agreeing with Living Rent 🤣.
Listen back from 2:21 to 2:30 in the programme: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00333…
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
Scotland 🏴
Over the past decade, Scotland has been losing around one pub every week. Scotland has lost nearly 600 pubs in the past decade.
In 2016, Scotland had 4,803 pubs. That figure had fallen to 4,206 in 2026. The hit has been far bigger in rural communities.
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
The current freedom and levers in Scotland have proven to be devastating in the visitor economy.
They have delivered over regulation thats closed thousands of small scale visitor accommodation businesses.
Too many words and insufficient action is an issue with @theSNP
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
@scotgov @Edinburgh_CC this is what your toothless licensing scheme has led to. An explosion of black market Stl leading to some medieval vigilantism. Start using enforcement effectively so that activists stop threatening people with mob justice.
@LivingRent_Edi whilst I agree with policing unlicensed Stl, pls leave enforcement to @Edinburgh_CC. This increasingly threatening activism has no place in today’s society. Intimidating people is not cool. Shades of Blue Lights riots.
SaveSelfCatering retweeted
This is another example of unintended consequences of @scotgov legislation. @StephenFlynnSNP we need this cat & mouse game your Gov created urgently addressed. #SaveSC @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
This is another example of unintended consequences of @scotgov legislation. @StephenFlynnSNP we need this cat & mouse game your Gov created urgently addressed. #SaveSC @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