East Lothian Council to Rule Again on New Holiday Let Homes

East Lothian Council's planning committee is due to rule on a resubmitted application to build new homes intended for use as holiday lets, after an earlier version of the same scheme failed to get through the process. For developers and operators watching Scotland's new-build short-term rental market, the outcome will signal how much latitude local planners are willing to give purpose-built holiday accommodation, as opposed to existing homes converted to short-term use.

The application has been brought back with changes aimed at addressing the concerns that stalled it the first time, though the council has not published a decision date. Planning committees routinely ask applicants to revise density, parking, design or drainage details before a resubmission goes to a vote, and any of those could be in play here. What matters for the industry is simpler: East Lothian is being asked, again, whether it wants new housing stock built specifically for the holiday let market, rather than treating short-term rental supply as something that only ever comes from the existing housing stock.

Why new-build holiday lets face extra scrutiny in Scotland

Scotland's short-term let licensing regime, in force since 2022, already requires operators to hold a licence from their local authority regardless of whether a property is a spare room, a converted flat or a purpose-built unit. Councils with tight housing supply, East Lothian among them, have leaned on planning powers as a second layer of control, using conditions on new development to limit or shape how holiday lets are built and used rather than simply relying on the licensing scheme after the fact. A resubmitted application forces the committee to restate its position on that balance in public.

For an operator or investor thinking about ground-up development rather than buying an existing property to let, that means planning risk is now a live variable alongside licensing cost. A scheme designed and marketed as holiday accommodation from the outset can still be refused or delayed on ordinary planning grounds - road access, effect on neighboring homes, local housing need - even where the short-term let licence itself would be straightforward to obtain.

What operators and investors should watch next

The immediate practical point is that the fresh bid has to clear the planning committee before licensing even becomes a question. Anyone with a similar new-build holiday let scheme in the pipeline in East Lothian, or in a comparable Scottish council area, should treat this case as a reference point for how conditions get attached and what revisions councils are asking for on resubmission, rather than assuming a licence-first approach will carry a project through.

There is also a wider signal here for the sector. Where local authorities are already stretched on housing supply, a purpose-built holiday let scheme invites a different level of planning debate than converting an existing property, since it adds net new units to a market some councils would rather see go to residents. Operators weighing new-build sites anywhere in Scotland should expect that argument to surface, whether or not it ultimately decides the case.