In short: Highland Council has dropped a planning policy that blocked smaller properties from being used as short-term lets in its Badenoch and Strathspey control area. If you were refused planning permission because your property had fewer than four bedrooms, you may now be able to reapply, possibly without paying a planning fee.
This is a genuinely positive development for short-term let operators in Highland Ward 20, and it is worth understanding what has changed and why.
What has changed
Highland Council operates a confirmed Short-Term Let Control Area (STLCA) covering Ward 20, Badenoch and Strathspey. Inside that control area, the Council applied a set of non-statutory planning policies to short-term let applications.
"Non-statutory" matters here. These policies were never part of the formal Development Plan. They were, instead, treated as "material considerations" - factors the Council could legitimately weigh - but only where a control area was engaged. On the strength of those policies, the Council refused a number of planning permission applications for short-term let use.
STL Solutions now understands that the Council has reviewed this practice and concluded, on the advice it has received, that its application of some of these non-statutory policies was ultra vires - in plain terms, beyond its legal powers. As a result, certain of those policies have now been disapplied.
The "four-bedroom rule"
The disapplied policy that will matter most to operators is what we will call the four-bedroom rule.
Under that policy, the Council would not support the use of an existing dwellinghouse as a short-term let, within the control area, if the property had fewer than four bedrooms.
The practical effect was stark. Operators of smaller properties, one, two and three-bedroom homes, were refused planning permission for short-term let use even where their applications satisfied every other policy requirement. For many operators, that planning permission was something they were applying for because their licence conditions appeared to require it. They did everything asked of them, and were refused solely because of the size of the property.
That policy now appears no longer to apply.
The opportunity
This change opens a real door for two groups of people in Ward 20:
Operators previously refused. If you applied for planning permission for a short-term let in Ward 20 and were refused, and that refusal relied substantially on the four-bedroom rule, the basis for that refusal may no longer stand. There is now a genuine opportunity to re-address whether planning permission can be obtained.
Operators who never applied. If you were put off placing a smaller property into short-term let use in Ward 20 in the first place, because the four-bedroom rule made an application look hopeless, that calculation has changed. It may now be worth pursuing.
What Ward 20 operators should do
1. Re-read any past planning permission refusal. Establish whether the refusal was based, in whole or in part, on the number of bedrooms in the property. 2. Book a consultation with a planning adviser. Discuss whether this change in policy materially improves the prospects of a fresh application. 3. Act without delay. Fee regulations may allow a repeat application to be made without a further planning fee to the authority. Planning fees also continue to rise regularly, so delaying a fresh application could simply mean paying more later. 4. Revisit any shelved plans. If you set aside a proposal to put a property into short-term let use because of the four-bedroom rule, take it back off the shelf and discuss it with an adviser.
Even if your previous refusal hinged on other matters in addition to the bedroom count, it is still worth a conversation. As this episode shows, policies and the way they are applied can change. New arguments can be developed and proposals reframed to improve the chances of success.
The wider lesson
This is a useful reminder of a point we make often: planning considerations for short-term lets become considerably more complicated once a control area is involved. Inside a control area, an operator is exposed not only to the formal Development Plan but to a layer of additional policy, the validity of which - as this Highland reversal demonstrates - is not always beyond question.
The clear advice remains that it is far easier to address a short-term let property's planning status before a control area is confirmed. With several new control areas currently in contemplation across Scotland, including two further areas proposed by Highland Council itself, operators everywhere should be taking proactive advice and acting on it now, rather than waiting for the regulatory position to harden around them.
If you operate in Highland Ward 20, or anywhere a control area is in force or under consideration, we would be glad to talk through your position.
Book a free 15-minute consultation or start a Certificate of Lawfulness application.
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Ross Armstrong Head of Professional Services, STL Solutions
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