Item9AA ShortTermLetNonStatutoryControlAreaWard20Paper

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 9 26 Janu­ary 2023 Page 1 of 4

For Decision Title: Short-term let con­trol area for Ward 20: Badenoch and Strath­spey Pre­pared by: Dan Har­ris (Plan­ning Man­ager) Purpose

1. This paper presents an update of the High­land Council’s work on estab­lish­ing a short-term let con­trol area in Ward 20: Badenoch and Strath­spey. It asks that the plan­ning com­mit­tee sup­port the Council’s adop­ted non-stat­utory guid­ance as a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion in the determ­in­a­tion of plan­ning applic­a­tions for short-term lets with­in the con­trol area.

Recom­mend­a­tion

1. The Com­mit­tee is asked to: a) Note their sup­port for the High­land Council’s non-stat­utory short-term let con­trol area plan­ning policy as a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion in the determ­in­a­tion of plan­ning applic­a­tions for short-term lets with­in the con­trol area in Ward 20: Badenoch and Strathspey.

Back­ground

1. Sec­tion 26B of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended by the Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 2019, allows plan­ning author­it­ies to des­ig­nate short- term let con­trol areas in which plan­ning per­mis­sion must be sought to change the use of a res­id­en­tial prop­erty to a short-term let¹.

2. At a meet­ing of the High­land Coun­cil on 9 Septem­ber 2021 mem­bers of Ward 20 expressed con­cern over the num­ber of dwell­ing houses with­in Badenoch and Strath­spey being lost to the short-term let mar­ket. At the request of the mem­bers it was agreed that the Coun­cil would pur­sue the con­sid­er­a­tion of estab­lish­ing a short- term let con­trol area across Badenoch and Strathspey.

1 See: https://​www​.legis​la​tion​.gov​.uk/​u​k​p​g​a​/​1​9​9​7​/​8​/​s​e​c​t​i​o​n/26B

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 9 26 Janu­ary 2023 Page 2 of 4

1. Detailed con­sid­er­a­tion of the request was under­taken at the Council’s Eco­nomy and Infra­struc­ture Com­mit­tee meet­ing on 2 Decem­ber 2021, whereby the Com­mit­tee agreed to advance to the form­al con­sulta­tion stage of the process.

2. This con­sulta­tion ran for a 6‑week peri­od, from 31 Janu­ary 2022 until 7 March 2022, with a total of 332 responses received. All responses were sum­mar­ised and repor­ted to the meet­ing of the High­land Coun­cil on 30 June 2022. At this meet­ing mem­bers agreed for officers to sub­mit the pro­pos­al to estab­lish a short-term let con­trol area for Ward 20 to Scot­tish Min­is­ters for approv­al and bring back a fur­ther report to the Eco­nomy and Infra­struc­ture Com­mit­tee con­firm­ing the out­come and out­lining the next steps

3. Moreover, the com­mit­tee report of 30 June also com­mit­ted the High­land Coun­cil, in con­sulta­tion with mem­bers, to pre­pare and con­sult upon plan­ning policy options for con­sid­er­ing and determ­in­ing plan­ning applic­a­tions for short-term let­tings with­in the con­trol area. A draft policy was con­sul­ted on between 8 Decem­ber 2022 and closed on 3 Feb­ru­ary 2023. The Park Authority’s plan­ning com­mit­tee con­sidered this policy in their meet­ing of 27 Janu­ary 2023 and agreed to sub­mit a response to the con­sulta­tion in sup­port of the draft policy².

4. After con­sid­er­a­tion of all the evid­ence presen­ted to them, on 20 Decem­ber 2022 Scot­tish Min­is­ters approved the pro­posed des­ig­na­tion of High­land Coun­cil Ward 20 (Badenoch & Strath­spey) as a short-term let con­trol area.

5. Om 4 May 2023, the Coun­cil agreed to del­eg­ate officers the power to under­take the final steps to estab­lish the short-term let area in their meet­ing of the Eco­nomy and Infra­struc­ture com­mit­tee. How­ever, fol­low­ing the pub­lic­a­tion of Scot­tish Government’s new short-term let con­trol area guid­ance on 17 May 20233, and in light of scru­tiny by inter­ested parties and the high risk of leg­al chal­lenge, the coun­cil con­sidered it appro­pri­ate to fur­ther con­sider the work they had under­taken to estab­lish the con­trol area pre­pare the draft non-stat­utory plan­ning policy.

2 https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​/​d​o​c​s​/​b​o​a​r​d​p​a​p​e​r​s​/​2​7​0​1​2​0​2​3​/​I​t​e​m​5​A​A​B​a​d​e​n​o​c​h​a​n​d​S​t​r​a​t​h​s​p​e​y​S​h​o​rtTer mLetControlAreaPolicyConsultation.pdf 3 https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/advice-and- guid­ance/2023/05/short-term-lets-plan­ning/­doc­u­ment­s/­plan­ning-cir­cu­lar‑1 – 2023-short-term-lets- plan­ning/­plan­ning-cir­cu­lar‑1 – 2023-short-term-lets-planning/govscot%3Adocument/planning-circular-1- 2023-short-term-lets-planning.pdf

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 9 26 Janu­ary 2023 Page 3 of 4

1. At a meet­ing of the High­land Coun­cil on 14 Decem­ber 2023 mem­bers once again agreed to del­eg­ate officers the power to under­take the final steps to estab­lish the short-term let area. Accord­ing to Reg­u­la­tion 9 of the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Short-Term Let Con­trol Areas) (Scot­land) Reg­u­la­tions 20214, in order to enact the short-term let con­trol area the Coun­cil must pub­lish a notice in a news­pa­per cir­cu­lat­ing in the area (in this case the Strath­spey & Badenoch Her­ald) and on their web­site. This notice must include the fol­low­ing: • the date on which the area is to be des­ig­nated as a con­trol area; and • how a copy of a map of the des­ig­nated con­trol area can be inspected.

2. The Coun­cil intend to pub­lish the notice in Janu­ary 2024. At least 28 days must be allowed between the date of the pub­lic­a­tion of the notice and the short-term let con­trol area com­ing into effect. Based on the ambi­tions and resources of the Coun­cil, the earli­est pos­sible date that the short-term let con­trol can be form­ally estab­lished is Monday 4 March 2024.

3. At the meet­ing of 14 Decem­ber, the Coun­cil also agreed to adopt the draft non- stat­utory plan­ning policy that will be used in the determ­in­a­tion of plan­ning applic­a­tions for short-term lets with­in the con­trol area.

Non-stat­utory short-term let con­trol area plan­ning policy

1. Fol­low­ing the con­sulta­tion on draft policy as well as its review fol­low­ing the release of Plan­ning cir­cu­lar 1/2023: short-term lets and plan­ning, numer­ous amend­ments were made to its word­ing. The ver­sion that the High­land Coun­cil have agreed to adopt has a more lim­ited scope to con­sid­er­ing pro­pos­als with­in a con­trol area and now reflects the defin­i­tions used with­in the 1997 Act and 2021 Reg­u­la­tions. Fur­ther­more, the policy now makes a clear­er dis­tinc­tion between the con­sid­er­a­tion of pro­pos­als for entirely new short-term lets and the con­tinu­ing use of exist­ing short- term lets.

2. The policy is unlikely to be used in decisions made by the Park Author­ity itself, as the changes of use it seeks to con­trol are unlikely to fall with­in the Park Authority’s call- in cri­ter­ia. It is worth not­ing how­ever that due to the pub­lic­a­tion and pub­lic engage­ment around the pro­pos­al to estab­lish the short-term let con­trol area, the Coun­cil has already received a num­ber of plan­ning applic­a­tions from new and exist­ing short-term let oper­at­ors seek­ing to secure plan­ning per­mis­sion in the event

4 https://​www​.legis​la​tion​.gov​.uk/​s​d​s​i​/​2​0​2​1​/​9​7​8​0​1​1​1​0​4​8​0​8​5​/​r​e​g​u​l​a​t​ion/9

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

Item 9 26 Janu­ary 2023 Page 4 of 4

the con­trol area is estab­lished. As of 20 Novem­ber 2023, the num­ber of plan­ning applic­a­tions pending across Ward 20 for exist­ing dwell­ing­houses was around 215 and while await­ing fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion of the effects of the con­trol area, these applic­a­tions have been held pending con­sid­er­a­tion. There­fore, once the short-term let con­trol area is form­ally estab­lished, these applic­a­tions will be determ­ined in accord­ance with the non-stat­utory plan­ning policy, Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 and, for those applic­a­tions with­in the Nation­al Park, the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021.

1. The policy and sup­port­ing text are presen­ted in Appendix 1.

Recom­mend­a­tion

1. It is recom­men­ded that the plan­ning com­mit­tee note their sup­port for the High­land Council’s non-stat­utory short-term let con­trol area plan­ning policy as a mater­i­al con­sid­er­a­tion in the determ­in­a­tion of plan­ning applic­a­tions for short-term lets with­in the con­trol area in Ward 20: Badenoch and Strathspey.

Sup­port­ing inform­a­tion Appendix 1 – High­land Coun­cil non-stat­utory short-term let con­trol area plan­ning policy.