Short-term let licenses: FOI release

Information requested

1. Have Councils been provided with additional funding from the government to process all the short term let licenses that now have to be obtained by current and new short term let providers?
2. If so does the additional funding relate to the number of licenses they produce?
3. If additional funding has been provided is this ringfenced? And is there is list published of amounts to each council, I can obtain?
4. Or, do the councils have to fund the administration of the licensing from the income produced by the fees charged per license, and does the government ensure/stipulate this income from the fees is ringfenced for administering the license or can the councils choose to use the income elsewhere?
5. Can I obtain a list of the number of short term let applications received by each council, and the numbers approved, along with the numbers refused per council to date?

Response

Please find answers to your questions below:

1. The Scottish Government has not provided funding to councils to process short-term let licensing applications.
2. Not applicable
3. Not applicable
4. Councils may set application fees on a cost recovery basis in order to administer short-term let licensing schemes. The Scottish Government does not oversee the fee levels set by councils. These are set by local councillors elected to licensing committees, the council Cabinets or full Council Committees, and are accountable to local financial scrutiny committees.
5. The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 Short-term lets Licensing Order places a duty on councils to publish information about short-term let applications on a quarterly basis via a public register available on their council website. You can find a list of links to all of the council’s websites here - https://www.mygov.scot/short-term-let-licences/cost-short-term-let-licence

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.