INFLATION is set to hit an eye-watering 13 per cent in October. But even that doesn’t come close to matching the price rise imposed on visitors to Scotland’s capital by the head of the Scottish LibDems.
Alex Cole-Hamilton has been collecting a second pay packet renting out a shed in his back garden for a few years now.
In August 2021, The Jouker reported that the MSP was charging a tidy £49 a night to stay in the shed. Including the cleaning fee, this went up to £57.
But the financial pressures of surviving on the measly MSP salary of £66,662 per annum must be getting to the LibDem leader.
This year, a single night in Cole-Hamilton’s back garden will set you back around 145% more than it would have in 2021.
One night in the shed will cost you £120, before adding the service fee – which is now £20.
For a two-night stay at the end of August, the Jouker was quoted £281.
That might seem pricey but the shack does sleep three – provided one of the party is happy kipping on an air bed on the “good amount of floor space”.
Reports in August last year estimated the MSP could be taking home as much as £10,000 a year renting out the “utterly private, beautifully built, warm and welcoming cabin”.
Scale that up by a similar percentage, and the Edinburgh Western MSP could rake in around the equivalent of the median pay in Scotland thanks to his Airbnb side hustle.
Good work if you can get it.
The LibDem leader will have until April 2023 to register his existing short-term let with the council or have to shut it down after new rules were brought in at the start of this month.
Edinburgh is home to a third of all short-term lets in Scotland, and steps have been taken to try and address the housing crisis in the capital.
