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Under agenda item 2, the committee will take evidence from two panels of witnesses on the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) (Amendment) Order 2023.

For our first panel, we are joined in the room by Professor Cliff Hague, who is a chartered town planner and chair of the Cockburn Association; Rob Dickson, who is the director of industry and destination development for VisitScotland; and Ailsa Raeburn, who is the chair of Community Land Scotland. Gillian McNaught, who is the legal manager for licensing and democratic services at Glasgow City Council, and Gary Somers, who is a solicitor for licensing at Highland Council, are joining us online.

I welcome our witnesses to the meeting. We will try to direct questions to specific witnesses where possible, but, if you would like to come in, please indicate that to the clerks. Could witnesses who are joining us online type R into the chat function if they wish to answer a question.

I will begin by framing the context for the meeting with what is set out in our briefing paper. The policy note that accompanies the licensing order explains that it would establish a scheme:

“to ensure short-term lets are safe and address issues faced by neighbours; and to facilitate local authorities in knowing and understanding what is happening in their area as well as to assist with handling complaints effectively.”

On 7 December 2022, the committee received a communication from Shona Robison, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, in which she said:

“I am writing to advise you that we intend to lay an affirmative Scottish Statutory Instrument in January 2023 that will seek to amend The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022. This is in order to amend the date by which existing hosts must apply for a short-term let licence from 31 March 2023 to 30 September 2023.

This is a one-off 6 month extension recognising the wider economic circumstances of the cost of living crisis that is placing pressure on existing short-term let hosts and businesses at a time when they are organising and budgeting for work to comply with the new licensing requirements.”

I refer to those in order to remind us of the purpose of the meeting. We might start to explore other areas, but I wanted to frame the discussion.

I have said that we will direct our questions to specific witnesses, but I will start with one that is for everyone to respond to. Does your organisation support or oppose the proposed six-month extension to the date by which existing hosts must have submitted an application for a short-term let licence? I would be interested to hear more detail on why you think that. Could you also set out what you think the implications of the delay might be from your perspective?

I have another supplementary question. Ailsa Raeburn talked about the challenges for communities that are, in a way, being hollowed out—those are my words, not hers—by the fact that teachers, nurses and those working in public sector services cannot find housing in them. However, as a Highlands and Islands MSP, I am also aware that there is a challenge around accommodation for people who work in the hospitality sector. Do you recognise that that is an issue? It is ironic. On the one hand, there is the short-term letting industry, but on the other hand, there are other hospitality services that the people who come to stay in short-term lets might want to avail themselves of, but they cannot get a meal in a hotel because the hotel cannot accommodate its staff.

I would like to dig a little deeper into the scale drawings. Rob Dickson, perhaps you can help us with that, as you are part of the industry advisory group, so I have a sense that you have a bit of an overview.

Do all local authorities require a scale drawing as part of an application?

I will take my question a little further, because I am trying to understand whether the requirement for a scale drawing is creating confusion. It is being interpreted as a requirement for an architectural drawing, whereas, in fact, people could just take a piece of grid paper and use one box on it as their scale. As Gary Somers said, a scale of 1:50 would be nice, but the drawing does not need to be exact. Certainly, in the case of Highland Council, it does not sound like the drawing has to be down to the nearest millimetre, and that what is actually required is something that gives a general sense of the placement of things.

Our final couple of questions are from Mark Griffin, who joins us online.

Thank you, Gary. Although the committee does not have a budget that we can provide funding from, we totally take on board the significant resource implications, and the fact that you did a good job to set up a new system in the timescale that was outlined. It sounds as though tremendous work was done in that respect in Highland, and we take note of that.

We have come to the end of our questioning. I apologise for running a bit over time. I thank the witnesses for their evidence.

I suspend the meeting to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

I welcome our second panel. We are joined in person by Julia Amour, who is the director of Festivals Edinburgh, and we are joined online by Fiona Campbell, who is the chief executive of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers.

I will open the questioning. The regulations under consideration provide for a six-month delay in the date by which existing hosts must have submitted an application for a short-term let licence. What is your view on that delay and its potential implications? I ask Julia Amour to answer first.

Thank you. The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 3 and 4 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

We want more detail on that point.

Thank you for going into a bit more detail. Next, we will hear from Cliff Hague.