FOI Request - Short Term Lets Licence Scheme 2
Request 101003189639
Please would you provide:
1. The estimated costs of implementing and operating the Council's short term let licence scheme and the method you have used to calculate the licence fees, as shown on your website or policies
2. Please provide the cost information split between:
a) Implementation already spent
b) Implementation estimated to spend
c) Operational running costs already spent
d) Operational running costs estimated to spend
e) Host/operator property visit costs already spent
f) Host/operator property visit costs estimated to spend
3. Please provide those costs asked for above further split between:
a) Wages/Salaries
b) IT
c) Systems
d) Software subscriptions
e) Software development
f) Other overhead
g) If the other overhead element is more than 10% of the total costs, then please provide detail of the Other overhead costs
4. Please provide those costs asked for above further split into:
a) Internal costs (Council inhouse)
b) External costs (Third party)
5. Please provide those costs asked for above identified between:
a) Capital costs (charged to the Balance Sheet)
b) Revenue costs (charged to the P&L or Income & Expenditure account - or similar)
6. Please provide the depreciation/amortisation policy relating to writing off the costs of the Capital Costs.
7. Please provide the above asked for Internal costs split between the Council's departments if applicable e.g.
a) Licensing Dept wages
b) Planning dept wages, IT, etc.
8. Please provide the method of calculating the Licence fees and other related fees as outlined in your Short Term Lets Policy or Draft Policy, split between each tiered fee element, if applicable.
9. Please provide the information on costs in fiscal/accounting years since costs related to the short term licence scheme began e.g.
a) If costs started in yrs. 2019/20 then it’s costs incurred since that period
b) If your calculation you used to compute the short term licence fee included estimates or planned costs for the next 5 years, then these years would be included as estimated
c) So, that would be 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 – incurred/actual costs and 2022/23, 2023/24, 2024/25, 2025/26, 2026/27 – budgeted/planned/estimated costs
Response 19-12-2022
1. The report to the Council's licensing committee is published on the website. This includes references to an calculation of fees both in the report and the appendices. This information is therefore exempt under section 25 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, information otherwise accessible. For ease of reference please find a link to the web page here: https://moray.cmis.uk.com/moray/CouncilandGovernance/Meetings/tabid/70/ctl/ViewMeetingPublic/mid/397/Meeting/1946/Committee/7/Default.aspx
2. Definite spend of £7000 on ICT software. Otherwise information not held. The cost is unknown. The overall application numbers are unknown so the impact on the service and the council as a whole is unknown. Hence fees were calculated by reference to estimated processing times for applications based on licensing knowledge and experience. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
3. As per above. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
4. Information not held. The fee should be designed to cover the cost to the council of providing the licensing function. The cost(s) of third parties are not relevant. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
5. Not held. The actual cost cannot be determined until after all potential applicants have applied. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
6. Not held. No capital costs so not applicable. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
7. Not held. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held.
8. See Answer 1.
9. £7000 in ICT software in 2022 with ongoing annual maintenance charges of £1000.
Additional admin resources for licensing service: 1 FTE Legal Admin = approx. £28,000 per annum. Admin person started 1/12/2022.
Other than this information not held. As described, income and expenditure data will need to be collected and reviewed on an ongoing basis.