Living Rent Highland delivers 800-name petition to Highland Council headquarters calling for proposed tourist tax to be used to address housing crisis

Placard-carrying campaigners have delivered an 800-signature petition to Highland Council’s headquarters calling for a proposed tourist tax to be used to address the housing crisis.

Living Rent Highland, which campaigns for better rights for tenants, protections against rent increases, evictions and poor-quality housing, handed it in on the day the council’s public consultation into the proposed visitor levy came to a close.

It calls for a levy of eight per cent to be introduced with at least £1.5 million of the projected annual levy being ringfenced to build more council homes, to repair and retrofit existing council stock and bring empty council homes back into use. It also says some of the levy should be used to boost the housing discretionary fund.

It comes as the region faces a housing crisis with an estimated additional 24,000 houses needed over the next 10 years to address a long-standing shortage of affordable homes.

• Inverness community voices concerns over rise in Airbnb-type accommodation and calls for cap on short-term let properties

• 'It is going to be soulless' - community leaders voice fears over neighbourhood's changing character

• Shortage of Inverness rental properties force letting agents to ‘close viewings within an hour’

Highland Council says a visitor levy of five per cent could raise about £10 million a year which could be spent on public infrastructure which is under pressure due to a huge number of tourists.

Although concerns have been raised by Highland business leaders about the proposals, Living Rent Highland campaigners support a levy, saying a “significant” proportion of the funds should be spent on council housing.

They say a precedent has been set in Edinburgh where the council has committed to spending £5 million visitor levy funds each year on improving social housing.

Stephanie Mann, of Living Rent Highland, said there are 8000 people on Highland Council’s housing list while at least one in 10 of these is in temporary homeless accommodation.

She said many were employed in tourism.

“We can appreciate business concerns but at the end of the day, without a place for these people to live, tourism will not survive,” she said.

Ms Mann moved to Inverness with her partner, who works in the healthcare sector, and said they had been unable to find anywhere suitable to rent.

“We had to go to the ‘bank of mum and dad’ and now we are home owners but that was not massively by choice,” she said.

Feargus Murray (28) had to move back in with his parents after being evicted from his flat when the landlord decided to sell.

“It’s incredibly difficult to find anywhere affordable,” he said.

“There are so many places taken up by short-term lets which could be turned into longer-term accommodation.”

Living Rent Highlands cites one case involving a man who moved to the area for a career.

His family of six - three adults and three children - are living in a two-bedroom flat as there are no four-bedroom houses available.

“The housing crisis has been a growing problem for decades,” he told Living Rent Highlands.

“We need better quality affordable housing.

“If a portion of taxes are specifically used for housing, more houses can be built and older council houses can be fixed up properly to ensure everyone has a safe and warm home.”

Living Rent Highlands argues that addressing housing inequality takes priority over expanding an already booming tourist sector and says in 2023, overnight tourists in the Highlands spent £762 million.

Living Rent Highlands organiser Louis McIntosh said there was a housing emergency in the region and said it was time for Highland Council to take control of it.

“Support for the visitor levy funds to be used in this way is clear,” he said.

“Highlanders need homes now.

“For too long has our land been used as the playground for the rich and their second and third homes.

“Our communities sustain tourism by working in hospitality, culture and local businesses, but we cannot keep this up if we do not have anywhere to live, it’s time we reap the benefits of the work we sow.

“There can be no Highland hospitality without Highland homes.”

Aird and Loch Ness councillor Chris Ballance, who listened to the representatives as they handed in the petition, had sympathy for the points they were making.

“I think it is a valid use of the visitor levy money - if it is agreed,” he said.

A council spokesman said following the end of the consultation, there will be a pause to fully consider the representations made, including the commissioning of further work.

“That is based on the number of concerns that have been raised, and the number of questions that businesses have,” the spokesperson said.

“That is likely to take some time, and the council will be working with accommodation providers to review the proposal to try and address these very real concerns in the most positive way possible.”

Should councillors agree this spring to a scheme, the earliest it could be implemented is winter 2026.

---

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.

---