Edinburgh Fringe Festival 'at risk' as council 'not enforcing' controversial law
Performers have told LBC rising costs of performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival are being exacerbated by the city council's short-term let licensing law.
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Following a phased introduction, it's now illegal to rent out a secondary property, primary home or spare room in Scotland's capital without a licence or exemption.
LBC has learned there are just 3,761 active licences and 231 exemptions in place ahead of the city's busiest month - August.
The council expects millions to attend the annual festivals, military tattoo and huge shows like Chappell Roan and Oasis. The Fringe alone welcomes around 25,000 performers each year.
Australian comedian Jeromaia Detto is performing his sixth year at the festival, but has told LBC it may be his last.
"Short-term let licences are a great idea in theory but I think what's ended up happening is the costs are just being passed on to the consumer," he said. "When it's hard to find a place you start looking for other options.
"You look at camping, glamping and some people say they're going to rent a van and sleep in the van or sleep in their car which is pretty wild to do for a month. When it comes to things like hotels... it's always a consideration but the price can be quite a bit. I remember looking it up one year and thinking 'oh absolutely not'. It was quite prohibitive."
"As it's growing now it's becoming more and more unsustainable for people to do the festival unless they have funding behind them or money, which is not the reality for a lot of artists out there. It's a real shame because it means that you get less and less of a range of voices. The festival itself has changed. It's turning into what it was trying to protest against."
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Fees to apply for a short-term let licence in Edinburgh range from £120 to £6,869. On top of that, applications require fresh gas, electricity and fire safety certificates.
The Association of Scotland's Self Caterers represents people running short-term lets as businesses. Its CEO Fiona Campbell has accused the City of Edinburgh Council of failing to enforce its own laws.
"They're not enforcing it, that's the reality," she told LBC. "Frankly, why would they? It costs money, it's a waste of time unless there's a really active complaint against somebody. The data quite clearly evidences that - 11 reports and 29 written warnings. For goodness sake, this is embarrassing.
"Regrettably, what we're absolutely now seeing as the result of licensing and planning is there is a thriving black market. So they're closing down legitimate, indigenous businesses that are professional, that offer really good, safe, quality service and they're enabling people to operate under the radar.
"You only have to look on Facebook - there's one group alone with 13,600 people in the group and half of them are offering accommodation, half are looking for accommodation, You just have to scroll down that Facebook group to see, quite clearly, that they're not displaying licences on their adverts. That is illegal."
The controversial licensing scheme received hundreds, if not thousands, of negative responses at the consultation stage. In practice, even a group which welcomed it has raised doubts about its implementation.
Tenants' union Living Rent sees the system as a positive, overall, putting more housing stock back into long-term use for Edinburgh residents. But union member Mike Williamson has told LBC licensing could work in a lesser capacity.
"There are some problems with the licensing scheme. We would be okay if home letting and home sharing wasn't subject to a licence. That's if you've got a spare room or if you go on holiday and let out your property. Nobody really minds about that, it doesn't cause the kind of problems that we're talking about."
The council's website indicates penalty fines and possible court appearances for anyone found flouting the licensing law.
However, LBC has viewed hundreds of advertised properties without a licence number actively being let out on sites like Airbnb and social media platforms.
Meanwhile, the city council has revealed just 11 people have been reported to the procurator fiscal, with 29 written warnings issued.
Councillor Neil Ross, convener of the regulatory committee, said: “We’re well and truly into the busy summer months now. I’d like to thank short-term let operators who have applied for a licence and remind anyone who hasn’t yet that it’s the law to have one in place. Our enforcement team continue to gather evidence on unlicensed short term lets and have reported 11 cases where the operator is allegedly operating without a licence to the Procurator Fiscal and issued a further 29 written warnings.
“One of the reports to the Fiscal was made following a visit to a property with Police Scotland. As a result, the guest staying in the property was successfully prosecuted for drug related activity with links to organised crime – highlighting the value of these visits to the local community. Also, if you are booking your STL via social media, you should be informed of the licence number. Please let us know via the council website - Report a problem with a short term let – The City of Edinburgh Council - if the operator won’t provide one.
“We’re continuing to develop the scheme and, having consulted widely with the industry and others, we agreed to update the scheme to make it more user-friendly and cost-effective by reducing fees for home-sharing licences and reducing fees and conditions for temporary exemptions for home-sharing and home-letting.”