…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
Regular readers will by now have (hopefully) picked up an odd and perplexing intellectual lacuna at the heart of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. Ministers have got themselves into a spot of bother in attempting to justify why someone can
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The Melville Monument in St Andrew Square in Edinburgh stands 152 foot-high and with a statue on top of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville. (1) The monument was constructed between 1821 and 1823 and the statue was added in 1827.
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On 8 January 2020, the then Housing Minister, Kevin Stewart, made a statement to Parliament announcing the Government’s proposals for the regulation of short-term lets. I had been campaigning on this topic alongside other MSPs such as Kezia Dugdale for
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In my previous blog I discussed whether the new short-term licensing regime covers house swaps and house sitting. House swaps are where two parties agree to swap their home for a period of time (usually for a holiday). House sitting
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The Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 (Licensing of Short-term Lets) Order 2022 obliges hosts and operators of short-term let accommodation to obtain a license in order to continue to be able to trade legally. Excluded from the this requirement is
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There has been quite a stooshie about new short-term letting (STL) regulations. The deadline for applying for an STL license is 1 October 2023 (having been extended for 6 months from 1 April 2023). What is going on? Background I
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Lorne Street tenants protesting at City Chambers, Edinburgh November 2015 The American land and tax reformer, Henry George, observed in his book, Progress and Poverty, that “thirty thousand people have legal power to expel the whole population from five-sixths of
Continue readingThis blog is reproduced with permission from the University of Glasgow’s Policy Scotland blog. In May 2014, the Land Reform Review Group submitted its final report to the ScottishGovernment. The First Minister announced in November 2014 that the Government would consequently bring forward a Land
Continue readingThis blog is long overdue (as indeed are many) but I understand that the City of Edinburgh Council’s Audit Committee will shortly be considering a report into the Parliament House fiasco. It is therefore appropriate to publish this second update on
Continue readingThe Scottish Government has announced the remit and membership of the Commission on Local Tax reform. I am very pleased to have been nominated as a member of the Commission on Local Tax Reform and look forward to meeting the other
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