Hugh Newsam

[David MacKenzie 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @oldtownrez]

Scotland's disastrous foray into the regulation of visitor accomodation which has closed thousands of B&Bs and Self Catering businesses is now making international headlines.

@hmgoodlad1
@S_A_Somerville

https://t.co/Jws7y1TTta

[Ne Obliviscaris @rock_shamrock]

I concur @ThomasKerrMSP that the extremist Greens are a threat to modern Scotland - they are also fixated on destroying regulated, licenced self-catering businnesses as well. All parties need to oust them from Holyrood - they are an absolute stain on Scotland and its people!

[West Ed | Edinburgh STLs @Lastholidayhome]

Question for the Scottish Government:

How many small accommodation providers are expected to be pushed over the £90,000 VAT threshold because of the Visitor Levy?

Was this ever calculated?

And why should collecting a tax for the council trigger another tax liability? #SaveSC

[West Ed | Edinburgh STLs @Lastholidayhome]

Edinburgh’s Visitor Levy gets crazier.
Guest pays the levy. We collect it. We don’t keep it. We hand it over.
Yet it counts towards turnover and the GOV portal WARNS this could push accommodation providers into VAT registration.
A tax that can help trigger another tax.
#SaveSC

[Bill Maher @billmaher]

One reason young people want socialism so much is that they're jealous that older people have it and they don't.

[SaveSelfCatering @SaveSCScotland]

@edin_city_break @CllrChasBooth Posting as a reminder of inflated nonsense that's been claimed in the past so we remember to take with a great deal of scepticism anything that is claimed in the present. Sort out the black market you created. 1,434 full time licenses in @edinburgh_cc is not the issue. #SaveSC

[Edinburgh City Break Apartment @edin_city_break]

Surely the more shocking statistic or ‘loophole’ if you will, would be the amount of StLs who haven’t engaged in the biased system at all and don’t have a licence and don’t pay the accommodation tax? @CllrChasBooth doesn’t seem interested in that.
Any statistics for noise disturbance? No? Didn’t think so, because the vast majority come from long term residents not STLs. That pesky data doesn’t fit this ‘loophole’ narrative does it Chas? It’s a #blanketban by @Edinburgh_CC #SaveSC

[Ne Obliviscaris @rock_shamrock]

Greens’ 12,000 short-term let fantasy leaves £9.6m levy black hole — licensed operators left holding the blame! @EdinburghGreens @scottishgreens @EdinburghLabour @Edinburgh_CC @heraldscotland @EdinburghTories @ASSCnews @FionaCampbell74 @SaveSCScotland @BBCScotlandNews @scotgov

[Will Hutton @williamnhutton]

Who is the enemy within? Today’s Mail on Sunday

[SaveSelfCatering @SaveSCScotland]

This is another example of unintended consequences of @scotgov legislation. @StephenFlynnSNP we need this cat & mouse game your Gov created urgently addressed. #SaveSC @ASSCnews

[Hugh Newsam @madmagic]

@LizKershawDJ So what ?

[Fiona Campbell @FionaCampbell74]

** Yesterday you didn't need planning permission. Tomorrow you may need it. Our policies have changed since you started your business, so you might not get it now…. **

The gap between @argyllandbute Council's assurances on its proposed short-term let control areas and its published licensing policy is deeply troubling.

The Council says existing operators will not be retrospectively affected.

Yet its licensing policy expressly anticipates existing licence holders having to apply for planning permission or a Certificate of Lawfulness after designation. Refusal could mean their licence is refused, varied or revoked. I read that as a clear route to affecting established businesses through licensing.

How are we supposed to reconcile those two positions?

The Council’s papers also models a hypothetical 10% reduction in existing self-catering properties, approximately 140 properties, returning to residential use.

Whose businesses does the Council envisage closing?

Whose livelihoods are at risk?

There is absolutely no evidence that these proposals will deliver affordable permanent homes. A business closing does not guarantee that its property becomes an affordable home, or even a permanently occupied one.

If the Council provides definitive, published confirmation that designation will not trigger blanket demands for existing, unchanged businesses to prove their historic planning status, including at licence renewal, we will welcome it.

Until then, I cannot advise established operators to take comfort from the claim that this only affects new proposals.

I believe operators have every reason to be worried, and every reason to respond.

Please respond to the consultation by 15 November 2026: https://t.co/ErQ3ayWSkp

I urge everyone affected to ask for evidence, clear safeguards and an honest explanation of what these proposals mean for existing businesses.

Respond to the consultation. It is critical.

#SelfCatering #ArgyllAndBute #ScottishTourism #SupportLocalBusinesses @ASSCnews @st_alliance @Argyll_IslesApp

[Gilded Lily @GildedLily13]

@marramgrass252 @LivingRent_Edi @Edinburgh_CC @SaveSCScotland @edinburghpaper @EdinburghLive_ Scary figures? Would those be like the scary figures that Living Rent fabricated claiming there were 12,000 STLs in Edinburgh while the reality is more like 2,600 last time I saw the official figures

[Ne Obliviscaris @rock_shamrock]

@marramgrass252 @LivingRent_Edi @Edinburgh_CC @SaveSCScotland @edinburghpaper @EdinburghLive_ Has @CllrChasBooth put you up to this or @EdinburghGreens - please do not fall for the smoke & mirrors. @Edinburgh_CC are responsible for enforcement but Chas has them hunting down legal, licenced STLs - do not do their dirty work - they're failing residents AND lawful hosts! 🤬

[James Tunny @tunny11192]

@marramgrass252 @LivingRent_Edi @Edinburgh_CC @SaveSCScotland @edinburghpaper @EdinburghLive_ They are also not your properties
"hoardn our homes", these are privately owned with all the massive costs, they are not the subsidised, usually free places you are familiar with. If landlords had more protection from the many rogue tenants , they might make them available

[Hugh Newsam @madmagic]

@rock_shamrock @SaveSCScotland @EdinburghLabour @EdinburghLibDem @EdinburghTories In the meantime rents, property prices and hotel prices have all up. There are only 1500 legal whole property short term lets, out if 250,000 dwellings ! So clearly they weren’t the problem. There are currently 31,000 on the social housing list … STls not the problem !!!

[John Lutge @JohnLutge]

@RickPetree @wenz66 Brexit was an FSB operation aimed at weakening NATO. As was installing Trump as POTUS. The aim was to allow unanswered aggression by Russia against other countries. Russia invested heavily to ensure Brexit's success.

[West Ed | Edinburgh STLs @Lastholidayhome]

You can operate a self-catering property, provided it doesn’t affect the property’s use as a permanent residential home.

If its a STL, it’s not being used as a permanent residential home.

That makes it impossible to qualify, while insisting they haven’t effectively banned STLs?

[Edinburgh City Break Apartment @edin_city_break]

Here’s a ‘loophole’ you might want to take credit for @CllrChasBooth: take the 4300 STLs currently on Airbnb not displaying a licence, let’s estimate £5000 revenue in this quarter; that’s £250 per property, per quarter lost in Accommodation Tax (sorry; visitor levy). That’s £1m PER QUARTER in lost revenue. Why then, are you and @Edinburgh_CC so determined to shut down the ever-diminishing amount of licensed STls paying the tax? Especially in the total absence of any evidence of loss of amenity for most of them. #SaveSC @bbcandrewpicken @deadlinenews @vickimillerVS @adamtomforrest @CBI_Scotland @SCOTOnetwork @stephenjardine @briandonnellyHT @collarbrodies @licensinglaws @stvnews @stvsharon @montaukian @mediawummin @RhodaFMorrison @donaldturvill @heraldscotland @bbcscotlandnews @edinburghpaper

[SaveSelfCatering @SaveSCScotland]

Whilst @edinburgh_CC actively axes full-time licensed self-catering operators making up just 1% of housing by conflating with planning, it ignores the far larger black market it created; a market costing the city millions in lost VL. This is a travesty of natural justice. #SaveSC