Tackling holiday lets

EDINBURGH is a booming tourist destination all year now and who can blame people for wanting to visit this cracking city.

It’s welcome news, great for the economy but the success doesn’t come without difficulties for residents who sometimes feel their needs are lost in the expanding crowds. People are living in city centre tenements where their neighbours are never there, just a constant stream of visitors staying in badly-run Airbnbs, with all the headaches and disruption this brings.

I’m not against people letting out a room, or even their flat for a few weeks, Edinburgh folk have being doing this for years during the festival. But the spirit of the thing is being lost now as more homes are being let out for greater chunks of the year, used as businesses while bypassing the pesky regulations that other bed and breakfasts have to meet. The rise in the number of flats on Airbnb in Edinburgh is startling – 43 per cent over 12 months, with a concentration in the city centre that’s proportionately four times greater than London.

This is damaging to the supply of homes to rent and urgently needs reined in.

The council are working hard to tackle it, with a dedicated team set-up to deal with complaints using the powers they have, and close work with the Scottish Government on the licensing powers they want to see brought in. I support these efforts and hope a robust regulatory system can soon put things back into kilter.