Available to take part in online until October, the Council is launching a 12-week consultation today (Monday 22 July) as part of a planned review of the local policy. This is in line with a decision taken in 2023 that the city’s policy would be reviewed after a year.

The exercise will allow residents, stakeholders and businesses affected by the operation of the scheme to offer comments and feedback, with targeted discussions with resident groups, industry bodies and other key stakeholders also set to take place. This will cover the Council’s approach to secondary letting, temporary exemptions, fees, and the application process.

Regulatory Convener, Councillor Neil Ross, said:

“Since we launched Edinburgh’s STL licensing policy in October 2022, we’ve granted over 1,500 applications. This is helping to ensure holiday lets are safe and properly regulated in our city.

“We now want to hear how the scheme has impacted the residents and businesses of Edinburgh. The opportunity for everyone to input into how the short term lets licensing scheme is working was a commitment we gave last year and over the coming weeks, we want to hear your views.

“I’m confident this will help us to better understand how people are finding the regulation through licensing of short-term lets in Edinburgh and help inform any future decision making.”

A report highlighting the results and further recommendations will be brought forward in the Autumn.