Planning, licences and registers: where UK short-term letting stands

Scotland: a licence, and it is not optional

Scotland’s short-term let licensing scheme began in October 2022, and since 1 January 2025 every property operating as a short-term let must hold a licence from its local council. That covers holiday cottages, B&Bs, guest houses, rooms in your own home and the unconventional end of the market — pods, yurts and the rest.

Operating without one is a criminal offence carrying a fine of up to £2,500. Separately, councils may designate control areas — Edinburgh being the well-known case — where changing a property’s use to short-term letting also needs planning permission. Licence and planning permission are two different applications; having one does not give you the other.

Wales: a register with the tax authority, not the council

The Visitor Accommodation (Register and Levy) Etc. (Wales) Act 2025 received Royal Assent in September 2025. It requires all visitor accommodation providers in Wales to register — and unusually, registration is with the Welsh Revenue Authority, not the local authority. The Welsh Government has said registration starts in 2026, with the register opening in the autumn.

The same Act frames the visitor levy that councils in Wales may introduce, which is a separate matter with its own timing. Worth knowing that the register and the levy travel together in the legislation even though they arrive separately in practice.

England: announced, consulted on, still not live

This one requires care, because the internet is full of pages stating a start date with confidence.

What is true as this is written: the government has confirmed a mandatory registration scheme in principle, ministers have pointed at “later in 2026”, and there is no confirmed go-live date. Similarly, the proposed C5 use class for short-term lets — consulted on in 2023 and 2024, along with permitted development rights to move between C3 and C5, and the power for councils to remove that right in defined areas — has no statutory instrument laid as of mid-2026. Until one is, the class does not exist.

What is already in force in England:

• London’s 90-night limit. Under the Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973, letting a London residence for short stays for more than 90 nights in a calendar year is a material change of use needing planning permission. This has been law for years and platforms enforce it on their own listings — which does nothing about the nights you let directly. If you take direct bookings in London, the 90 nights are yours to count.
• Ordinary planning law. Letting your own home occasionally while you are away is not usually a change of use. Running a second property as a full-time short-term let can be, and councils have taken enforcement action where neighbours complain, entirely without a C5 class existing.

What to do with all this now

1. Scotland: if you do not have a licence, that is today’s job, not this quarter’s.
2. Wales: watch for the WRA register opening and have your property details ready; registration is the kind of thing that is easy in week one and painful in month six.
3. England: nothing to register yet. Do not pay anyone who offers to register you for a scheme that has not launched — that scam is already circulating.
4. All three: if you count nights against a cap, count all channels. A calendar that only knows about the portals is not counting.

Not legal advice, and this is the fastest-moving area in the whole business — the England position in particular has changed several times. Confirm with your council, or with a planning consultant if the answer decides an investment.