Plans for tighter controls on short-term lets in St Andrews and East Neuk move forward

Plans to bring short-term lets in St Andrews and the East Neuk under tighter planning controls are set to move forward.

The possibility of establishing a Short-Term Let Control Area (STLCA) covering this part of Fife is currently being looked at amid concerns about the concentration of holiday accommodation and the availability of homes.

Members of the North East Fife Area Committee are due to consider the proposed strategy at their meeting next Wednesday.

If it is brought in, the control area would mean homes used for secondary letting, where the property is not the owner’s main residence, would require planning permission to operate as short-term lets.

A report to councillors explained that, at present, planning permission is only required for the use of a residential property as a short-term let (STL) if a material change occurs.

It states: “Currently this is determined on a case-by-case basis. Typically, this would include flatted properties with shared entrances being used as STLs, therefore requiring planning permission in most instances.

“The purpose of STLCAs is to ensure that all material changes of dwellinghouses to short-term letting use are brought within the scope of the planning system, without the need to consider if a particular change is, or is not, a material change.

“Put simply, within a STLCA, all dwellinghouses used for secondary letting (the letting of property where you do not normally live as your primary residence, for example, a second home that is let to guests) will require planning permission to operate as a STL; allowing appropriate regulatory powers to balance the needs and concerns of the community with wider economic and tourist needs.”

Where a dwellinghouse has been used consistently for secondary letting for ten years or more without planning permission, it would have to have its use regularised through a Certificate of Lawfulness of Existing Use or Development.

The report stresses that a control area will not mean a ban on short-term lets.

It added: “It is essential that any control area policy framework balances the positive contribution of STLs to the tourism sector and local economies against the potential adverse impacts on the character and amenity of areas and the impact of further reducing the supply of permanent housing for local people.

“A control area would not operate as a complete ban on STLs, rather as a means of limiting new planning permissions to those areas where the loss of the residential property is outweighed by the economic benefit to the local community.”

A formal public consultation is now set to take place along with more research into the prevalence of short-term lets and their economic and housing implications.

The findings are then likely to return to the North East Fife Area Committee in early 2027 when councillors could decide whether to make a formal request to Scottish ministers for consent to designate the control area.