ASSC calls for evidence-led reset of housing policy

Shared with Scottish Ministers, MSPs and key policymakers, Scotland’s Housing Challenge: Rebalancing the Evidence draws on the latest Scottish Government housing statistics, short-term let licensing data, and independent research across the housing and tourism sectors. Its central finding is that Scotland’s housing pressures stem overwhelmingly from structural factors: inadequate supply, affordability constraints, rising demand for social housing, and large amounts of underutilised stock.

The briefing also scrutinises whether the extensive regulation imposed on the self-catering sector in recent years has produced the housing benefits its supporters claimed.

ASSC chief executive Fiona Campbell MBE said: “Housing pressures are real and deserve serious policy attention. However, many of the current policies being pushed at national and local levels in Scotland are lacking completely lacking in evidence, proportionality and a willingness to assess whether interventions are actually delivering the outcomes they were intended to achieve.

“Over the last four years, Scotland has introduced one of the most comprehensive regulatory frameworks for short-term lets in Europe. Yet the evidence continues to show falling housing supply, rising social housing waiting lists and ongoing affordability pressures.

“The question policymakers must now ask is simple: where is the evidence that intervention in the self-catering sector has delivered meaningful housing benefits? We are not arguing against action on housing. We are arguing for action that is most likely to work. Scotland’s housing challenges require structural solutions. Future policy should be guided by outcomes, evidence and proportionality, ensuring effort is focused where it can deliver the greatest benefit for communities.”

Among its key findings, the briefing concludes that Scotland’s housing challenges are primarily structural; that no robust national evidence exists demonstrating a causal link between restricting short-term lets and improved housing outcomes; that vacant and second homes significantly outnumber secondary short-term lets; and that many licensed short-term lets do not represent conventional residential stock capable of contributing to long-term housing supply.

The briefing sets out a range of practical recommendations, including increasing housing supply, returning empty homes to productive use, strengthening the evidence base for future interventions, reviewing the effectiveness of Planning Control Areas, and considering a national Use Class Order for self-catering accommodation.

The ASSC says Scotland now has an opportunity to move beyond past debates and focus on solutions that serve both housing goals and sustainable tourism.