Dear Highland Council,
We write to you as the Inverness and Highland branch of Living Rent, Scotland’s Tenants’ and Community Union, to urge you to consider implementing an 8% Visitor Levy and thereafter ringfence some of the funds raised to be spent on extending and improving Highland social and affordable housing.
By your own admission, as laid out in Section 8.1 of the Highland Housing Register Allocations Annual Monitoring Report 2023/24, ‘The demand for social housing in Highland remains high and, in many areas, the available housing for let cannot meet the demand.’ We insist that this must be addressed urgently and with a view to ensuring that every Highlander has access to affordable, secure and quality housing.
Furthermore, in January of 2025, Highlanders saw an increase of 8% in their council housing rent while in 2024 private renters saw an average annual increase of 4.6%. Highlanders across the board are paying more to live in the Highlands, so it is imperative that action be taken to justify these rising costs.
Tourism and employment
Local residents and Living Rent members have raised concerns around the impact an ever-growing tourist sector has had on the availability of housing. While tourism is an essential part of the Highland economy, the employees that keep such a booming sector afloat are repeatedly having to leave their places of work because they simply cannot find anywhere to live.
This is largely seen in areas where the majority of properties are being used as second homes or as short-term holiday lets. In contrast to urban areas, commuting isn’t often a viable option for many Highlanders due to the accessibility and travel distance across rural Scotland.
Ensuring there is adequate access to affordable PRS homes and social housing will benefit both Highlander communities and the tourism industry by stabilising the workforce that already exists.
Community and identity
Local residents and Living Rent members also express concern over their loss of community. The increase in housing stock being used as second homes or short-term holiday lets has given rise to once tight-knit communities being decimated by the influx of transient visitors.
This has also directly impacted Highlanders familial relationships and social lives as thousands have had to leave their hometowns behind in search of available housing. A steadily rising number of young people are being forced out of their rural communities and have had to make the move to urban life in cities like Inverness, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Not only is moving away from family and friends a stressful experience, but the forced assimilation into urban city life can have a detrimental impact on mental and physical wellbeing.
Community is a strong part of the Highland identity and while Highlanders stress they are proud of being known for their hospitality, the cost of their strong community relationships are too high a price to pay. Highlanders have already faced a large dilution of their culture and identity through the decline of Gàidhlig speakers and community land ownership. Providing more social housing and ensuring access to affordable PRS homes will strengthen Highlander communities.
Given the reasons above, we ask that the Highland Council ensures they address the urgent housing crisis by ringfencing visitor levy funds and investing them in providing more council homes, repairing and retrofitting existing council stock and boosting the Housing Discretionary Fund. We believe doing so is vital to the wellbeing of our community, and Living Rent will be campaigning over the coming months to ensure that our members’ views on this issue are heard.
Signed,
Living Rent Inverness and Highland Branch
Simon Allison, Chair of Highland Pride
Jacqueline McCaffrey, Founder, A Helping Hand in the Highlands
Conor Cheyne, RMT
Flick Monk, Campaigner, Platform
Iona MacLeod, Manager, New Connections.
Lorna Dempster, Manager, Highland Food bank.
Sian McWalter, Bright Minds Youth Support worker, Lochaber Hope.
Caroline Rance, Head of Campaigns, Friends of the Earth Scotland.
UNITE Inverness.
