The Law Society of Scotland has responded to the Short-Term Let Consultation.
In it, they note the Scottish Government’s Best Practice Guide on Business and Regulatory Impact explains:
“Our Better Regulation agenda aims to reduce unnecessary burdens on business by ensuring all regulation follows the Better Regulation principles of being: proportionate, consistent, accountable, transparent, targeted only where needed….
Better Regulation is supported by a range of measures including: Business and Regulatory Impact Assessments (BRIAs)…
At the outset of any policy development, non-regulatory options such as voluntary regulation should always be considered and a BRIA completed to ensure the costs and benefits of each option are fully considered and compared.
We note that no partial Business Regulatory Impact Assessment is available with the consultation. This seems vital and an omission as it is difficult to fully understand the impacts of the proposed regulatory regime (and whether there may be a better alternative) without detail. This makes it challenging for fully informed representations to be made. The proposed regimes could be very costly for operators, particularly for those operating more than one property and those owning properties in different local authority areas with discretion afforded for charges to be vary vastly.