In short: Highland Council's summer consultation on two further Short-Term Let Control Areas — Inverness City and Highland Rural (which as consulted on includes the Wester Ross / Strathpeffer / Lochalsh corridor as its most-discussed sub-strand) — has closed. The published Wester Ross / Strathpeffer / Lochalsh returns showed a narrow overall majority in favour of designation. The final decision goes to the Council's Economy and Infrastructure Committee later in 2026. Operators in those areas have a defined - and narrowing - window in which to secure their planning position before designation.
In May, we wrote about Highland Council's consultation on new Short-Term Let Control Areas. Those consultations have now closed. This is the position as we understand it as of early September, and what it means for operators.
Where things now stand
Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh. The consultation closed on 23 June 2026. The published results returned a narrow overall majority in favour of designation. The proposal now sits with the Council's Economy and Infrastructure Committee for a final decision expected later in 2026. If approved by the Committee, the designation then requires Scottish Ministers' confirmation before taking effect.
Inverness City and Highland Rural. The equivalent consultation closed on the same date and is progressing on the same track, with area committees having reviewed reports in August and the Economy and Infrastructure Committee expected to take the matter in November 2026.
Ward 20 (Badenoch and Strathspey). Existing control area remains in force. The disapplication of the four-bedroom rule reported in May remains the operational position.
Why "narrow majority" matters
A narrow majority is still a majority. Highland Council has no procedural bar to designating a Control Area on a majority of that size, and there is no indication that officers will recommend against designation on that ground.
Between the Committee decision and Ministerial confirmation, an operator without a Certificate of Lawfulness or planning permission is in a shrinking window. Once designation is confirmed by Ministers and takes effect, any change of use of a dwellinghouse to secondary letting short-term let use in the designated area becomes automatically material and requires planning permission (home-letting and home-sharing sit outside the deeming provision). The "no material change of use" argument that many Certificates of Lawfulness are built on is no longer available for uses that had not been established as lawful before designation.
What operators should do
1. If you operate in Wester Ross, Strathpeffer, Lochalsh, Inverness City or Highland Rural, take advice on planning status now. Not after the Committee decision, and certainly not after Ministerial confirmation. 2. Prioritise a Certificate of Lawfulness where available. A Certificate secured before designation is unaffected by the designation. A Certificate refused after designation has a much harder path to appeal. 3. If the use qualifies for a Certificate on the 10-year basis, evidence takes time to compile. Start now. 4. If a Certificate is not the right route, take advice on planning permission before designation. Applications made against the pre-designation policy context tend to fare better.
Highland's pattern - Ward 20 first, more consultations following - is the pattern operators in other Scottish rural authorities should assume will be repeated. The Welsh precedent is a caution rather than a template: Gwynedd's Article 4 Direction (in force from 1 September 2024, quashed in November 2025) shows how quickly a first-mover authority can be caught by evidential and procedural challenges. The window between "we are consulting" and "we have designated" is often shorter than operators expect, but the window between "we have designated" and "we are enforcing at scale" is not always as short as operators fear. Neither point is a reason to wait.
We will update this piece as the Committee decisions are issued.
Sources: Scottish Housing News - Short-term let controls move forward in Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh; Highland Council - Short-Term Let Control Areas.
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