Self-catering industry worth more than £30million a year to Dumfries and Galloway economy
by Stuart Gillespie, https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/authors/stuart-gillespie/ · Daily RecordGet the latest Daily Record breaking news on WhatsApp
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New figures claim that self-catering is worth more than £30 million to Dumfries and Galloway’s economy.
And in the process, the industry supports more than 1,000 jobs across the region.
Consultants BiGGAR Economics have looked at the impact of the short-term let (STL) sector across Scotland, with people running such a property now needing to have an operating licence.
They found that STLs helped generate more than £850 million gross value added (GVA) for the Scottish economy in 2023, supporting nearly 30,000 jobs.
Dumfries and Galloway’s share of that was a £31.8 million GVA and 1,079 jobs.
The report also claims that 2.1 per cent of properties in Dumfries and Galloway are STLs, while empty homes make up 4.2 per cent of the housing stock.
And BiGGAR say the annual GVA with an owner-occupier/private rented household in the region is £10,948 – compared to £20,192 for a two-bedroom STL.
Graeme Blackett, Director of BiGGAR Economics, said: “This report shows that secondary lets make an important contribution to Scottish tourism and economy overall, supporting almost 30,000 Scottish jobs. Our research also concluded that it was clear that secondary lets are not a driver of the wider Scottish housing market.
“If short-term let regulations leads to a reduction in the supply of secondary lets, that will have a negative impact on the tourism economy, without delivering any solutions to Scotland’s wider housing challenges.”
Figures released in October showed there had been more than 1,600 applications in Dumfries and Galloway for a short-term let licence.
But the council’s communities committee had previously been told there were around 2,300 short-term lets in Dumfries and Galloway, meaning there could potentially be around 700 properties being let without the required licence.
Operators had until the start of October last year to apply for a licence or face a fine of as much as £2,500.
CEO of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, Fiona Campbell, said: ““This is yet more compelling evidence that short-term lets aren’t the main contributor of the housing crisis but are instead turbocharging local economies. We can see this in Dumfries and Galloway where STLs generate £32m per annum and support 1,079 local jobs.
“However, the windfall created by STLs is at risk from heavy-handed regulation. Dumfries and Galloway Council should take heed of the report’s findings when considering their approach to planning policies and control areas to ensure the relatively small number of valuable short-term lets are protected. Moreover, STLs don’t impact the housing market with such properties being far outnumbered by the large amount of economically inactive empty homes and second homes in the area.
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