COUNCILLORS in Fife have asked for more information after claims that Airbnb type properties are creating “ghost towns”.
Although Fife Council officers from across four services said there is “no evidence” holiday let control zones would provide the answers or solutions that overwhelmed communities are looking for, Cabinet Committee councillors unanimously requested more information about the process yesterday.
According to some councillors like LibDem Fiona Corps, short term lets – a type of Airbnb or guest accommodation – are gutting local coastal communities across Fife.
“I think we hear all too much about the tourism industry and very little about the local people,” Corps said.
She believes [short term lets] are partly to blame for the “steady decline” in local school roles because “families can’t afford to stay local”.
“It’s clear from figures that St Andrews, Elie, Earlsferry, and the East Neuk area all have unacceptably high percentages of short term lets in comparison to surrounding areas,” she said.
“The issue is here now and people want to see action now.”
Fife Council has granted 2,027 short-term let licences since a licensing scheme went live in October 2022. Of those, 719 are in Largo and East Neuk where they represent 8% of the total housing stock.
Elie and Earlsferry have the greatest concentration of short-term lets in Fife – 18.6% of all houses in these villages are registered short-term lets. It’s the only place in Fife where the total percentage is higher than 10%.
“If you want to see any conclusive evidence [that short-term lets are impacting communities], you just have to visit [Elie and Earlsferry],” Corps said.
“It is pretty much a ghost town. There’s no shops or anything left anymore and people are living with no neighbours and a very small school.”
However, officers from housing, planning, legal and democratic and protective services argued yesterday that short-term lets control areas won’t do what councillors and communities want them to.
Control zones would not put a cap on the number of short-term lets allowed in an area, and it would not impact any of the ones that are currently operating. It would simply force new short-term lets to gain approval through the council’s planning process.
“Introduction of a control area doesn’t bring any new reasoning for refusal,” Craig Walker, the lead officer for policy and place, said.
“It’s not a ban or a moratorium, it can’t place a cap on STL numbers, and it can’t address affordability – which is also the principal issue for housing in East Neuk and St Andrews. It won’t increase the provision of affordable housing and it can’t provide a presumption against planning proposals.”
He also emphasised that in the last five years 96% of all short-term let planning applications have been approved within Fife.
Labour councillor Altany Craik supported the call for more information yesterday, but he urged caution as well.
“Just because it has a rather good name, it doesn’t actually do what it says on the tin as well as we’d like,” he said.
“People facing these issues on the ground want it to mean control and no more short term lets if there’s too many, but control zones don’t change the number that is already there, and it doesn’t change second homes.”
He added: “We need to be careful that we don’t create expectations amongst communities that this is going to solve their problems.”
The committee openly acknowledged that control areas are not a golden solution for Fife’s housing problems, but they nonetheless believed it was a step in the right direction to protect Fife’s coastal communities.
“No one is claiming that it would provide a definitive solution,” councillor Jonny Tepp said.
“However, it could provide a contribution to solve those issues, which is probably why two other councils [Edinburgh and Highlands] felt they were worth pursuing.”
Corps and SNP councillor Brian Goodall put forward two separate recommendations to progress short term let control areas in Fife. After a short break, they found a compromise that will see a paper prepared for a cabinet meeting in April.
The report will set out a proposed process to “take forward the consideration of the need for a STL control area” in Fife.
If the cabinet decides to move forward with STL control area plans, the full council will be asked to devolve the power to evaluate and designate control zones to the area committees in May.
