- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 21 April 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what correspondence it has exchanged with the City of Edinburgh Council regarding the operation of houses in multiple occupation legislation with regard to holiday lets.
Answer
The City of Edinburgh Council has confirmed that it does not consider antisocial behaviour amongst tenants of holiday lets to be a widespread problem in the city and that it considers existing powers to tackle noise nuisance sufficient for dealing with disturbances caused by occupants of holiday lets.
However, the Scottish Government is aware of the council''s concerns that the definition of an HMO (house in multiple occupation) may not be sufficiently closely drawn and that in some cases landlords may be evading HMO licensing requirements by claiming that properties are being let on a short-term basis, and that residents have principal residences elsewhere.
We will be considering the options for implementing the HMO provisions in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 later this year. The issue of short-term lets and what types of accommodation require to be licensed under those provisions will be part of our discussions with stakeholders. However, the Scottish Government has no plans to extend HMO licensing to genuine holiday lets.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 21 April 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what research has been undertaken to ascertain the number of properties in Edinburgh operating as holiday lets.
Answer
There is no recent research to ascertain the number of properties operating in Edinburgh as holiday lets. However, the Edinburgh and the Lothians Visitor Accommodation Audit 2006 identified 646 self-catering properties in Edinburgh.
The full audit report is available at the VisitScotland website at:
.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 15 April 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what it regards as the maximum desirable occupation standards for rented accommodation.
Answer
The statutory definition of overcrowding is contained in Part VII of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987. Local authorities have various powers and duties in relation to overcrowded houses and their occupants, including carrying out inspections to identify overcrowded houses and taking levels of overcrowding into account in the preparation of local housing strategies.
The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation) Order 2000 was introduced to protect tenants whose principal or only residence is a multiply-occupied house. Local authorities are responsible for identifying unlicensed HMOs and ensuring that conditions of licences are complied with, including the number of occupants allowed.
The Scottish Government is aware of concerns that some landlords may be evading HMO licensing requirements by claiming that properties are being let on a short term basis, and that tenants have principal residences elsewhere. In doing so, some landlords may be putting tenants at risk of overcrowding.
We will be considering the options for implementing new HMO provisions in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 later this year. The issue of short term lets, and what types of accommodation require to be licensed under those provisions, will be part of our discussions with stakeholders.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 3 April 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has considered amending houses in multiple occupation legislation to include short-term holiday lets.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-22158 on 30 March 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at .
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 1 April 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether holiday lets are liable for council tax and business rates.
Answer
Properties which are made available for letting on a commercial basis for 140 days or more in a year (or where the intention is to make them available) may be liable for business rates and if not, they will be liable for council tax.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how much packaging for recycling is being stockpiled, broken down by local authority.
Answer
We are not aware of any local authority in Scotland that is having to stockpile packaging as a consequence of the economic downturn.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how much paper for recycling is being stockpiled, broken down by local authority.
Answer
We are not aware of any local authority in Scotland that is having to stockpile paper as a consequence of the economic downturn.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 30 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how much glass for recycling is being stockpiled, broken down by local authority.
Answer
We are not aware of any local authority in Scotland that is having to stockpile glass as a consequence of the economic downturn.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 27 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new leasing arrangements for buildings that it occupied involved (a) new leases and (b) renewals of existing leases in each of the last five years.聽
Answer
The information held within the Electronic Property Information Mapping Service (e-PIMS) shows that the number of new lease arrangements for each of the past five years entered into by Core Scottish Executive is as follows:
2004: 1
2005: 2
2006: 3
2007: 0
2008: 0.
A renewal of an existing lease is classified as a new lease and included within the above statistics.
- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Edinburgh Central, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 27 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many new leasing arrangements for buildings聽occupied in Scotland by (a) non-departmental public bodies and (b) Executive agencies聽involved (i) new leases and (ii) renewals of existing leases in each of the last five years.聽
Answer
The information held within the Electronic Property Information Mapping Service (e-PIMS) over each of the five years shows the number of new lease arrangements entered into by non-core Scottish Executive bodies is as follows:
2004: 11
2005: 27
2006: 18
2007: 19
2008: 3.
A renewal of an existing lease is classified as a new lease and included within the above statistics.
