IS TOXIC PROFITEERING TURNING ARTS FESTIVAL INTO A PARTY FOR THE RICH?

Two years ago, as the Edinburgh Fringe sought to regroup after the pandemic, it underlined its vision for the years ahead with a new motto. 

The ethos was ‘to give anyone a stage and everyone a seat’.

It was in many ways a restatement of the original ideology that kickstarted the unofficial festival back in 1947. 

No, said a clutch of local theatre groups left off the invitation list for the inaugural international event, they would not be overlooked in favour of elite performers hand-picked by the arts cognoscenti.

If Edinburgh were to have a festival they would put on their own shows at the fringes of it. Nobody could stop them, and nothing did.

The Fringe then blossomed into a heart-warming antidote to the view that establishment figures ran the arts. 

If you had ideas, talent and a show in which to package them, then Edinburgh had a berth for you.

With this spirit at its heart, the Fringe became the world’s biggest arts festival – one eyed with envy by major cities around the globe.

Today it faces the gravest of threats. 

And the bitter irony is it is Edinburgh itself – not a rival city – which poses it. Scotland’s capital stands accused of strangling one of its most famous and lucrative assets.

Equally ironic in the run-up to the 2024 edition is that motto – aged just two but already looking worryingly outdated.

The accommodation crisis now enveloping Edinburgh means many performers cannot afford a stage. Nor can untold numbers afford to come to the city to take their seats.

Horrifyingly for the Fringe organisers, the sky-high costs of staying in Edinburgh have led to the Fringe being tarred with the same brush that it tarred the official festival decades ago –as elitist and available only to deep pockets.

Alas for them, the matter is largely out of their hands. 

Poor legislation is the villain of the piece, many argue – that and a catastrophically misguided application of it by the city which most needed to get it right.

Others, such as former BBC presenter Gail Porter, have turned their fire on the laws of supply and demand. 

She said ‘greed’ in her native Edinburgh had resulted in her being ‘priced out’ of putting on her Fringe show this year.

Behind the growing crisis is the Scottish Government’s short-term let licensing legislation, with this year’s Fringe the first to operate under its auspices.

The rules state those letting out properties or rooms for short-term guests have to apply for a licence, but leeway was given to councils to decide on the pricing and the types of letting arrangements which would be covered.

Edinburgh, it is argued, plumped for the most punitive interpretation of the law, with the result that many who let out their homes during the festival have left the market.

It means the number of available properties in Edinburgh’s peak season has declined dramatically and prices have shot up.

This is exactly what bodies such as the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC) warned would happen – a dearth of capacity during the world’s biggest arts festival.

Even Fringe Society chief executive Shona McCarthy now accepts there is ‘real concern’ the Fringe could soon be only for those with the deepest pockets.

Tory MSP Miles Briggs goes further. He fears the Fringe is about to become ‘a shadow of its former self’ and lose its world-leading status to a city better at welcoming visitors.

It was a twin assault on the looming crisis by Ms Porter and TV comedian Jason Manford which propelled the issue into the public eye last month.

Writing on X, Ms Porter said: ‘Was so excited to go the Fringe this year. But have been priced out by soaring costs of B&Bs. My home town. 

Feel so sorry for new, young performers that won’t be able to afford accommodation. Gutted Edinburgh has done this. Greed is awful.’

She said the cheapest quote she got for a ten-day stay was almost £2,000.

Mr Manford described prices as an ‘absolute joke’, tweeting: ‘No idea how anyone starting out is managing to get up there and showcase their talents!

‘I’ve just priced up a week up there and even if every show sells out, I’m still operating at a loss.’

Most accept prices for staying in Edinburgh during the Fringe, whether as a performer, backstage hand or a spectator, have risen steadily in the past decade, putting it beyond the financial reach of many in all three groups.

But the new law – and Edinburgh Council’s application of it – has accelerated the increase dramatically by reducing supply, argue professionals such as Ralph Averbuch, who runs several city properties as short-term lets (STLs).

He told the Mail the Edinburgh licensing model was based on a wild overestimate of the numbers of short-term let properties available. 

Where the council believed the figure was 12,000, fewer than 2,000 have applied for licences.

He said: ‘They were just accepting any old nonsense that was spouted by some lobby group and taking it as fact.’

What no one doubts is that, ever since the rise of outfits such as Airbnb, short-term lets have been a battleground in Edinburgh.

Some believed they were hollowing out the Old Town of full-time residents and turning the centre of the capital into a theme park.

Heritage group the Cockburn Association bristled at the proliferation of tell-tale key safes springing up outside tenement blocks – a sure sign many of the flats inside were no longer people’s homes but tourist accommodation.

Some tenement-dwellers found themselves the last owner occupiers in their blocks and complained of constant comings and goings of tourists and cleaners on the stairs.

As the association’s chairman Cliff Hague pointed out, there was no registration system for those jumping on the Airbnb bandwagon, other than with Airbnb itself.

For the property owners, the arrangement had all the upsides of running a hotel with few of the drawbacks, such as health and safety compliance, managing staff or running a kitchen.

There was not even any need to meet the new arrivals. The key safes on the walls beside the building entrances took care of that.

Now, argues Mr Averbuch, Edinburgh has veered to the opposite extreme, making it so complex and expensive to operate short-term lets that only those who do it for a living will apply for licences.

He said: ‘It is one thing for me as a full-time professional to put up with the absolute agony of going through this process… but it is an entirely different thing to expect from somebody who would love to just let out their property for a few weeks a year during the festival.

‘They would have to find a minimum of £1,000, do a lot of paperwork, get this or that certificate, get a floor plan that shows all your fire exits and make sure everything in the building is PAT-tested and none of the furniture is in breach of fire retardancy rules.

‘A lot of people are saying it’s not worth it. I’m not going to bother.’

A glance at the going rates for August illustrates the upshot. A spare room in an occupied flat in Portobello is £3,080 for the month on Airbnb.

Seven nights in a small studio flat in Abbeyhill would come to almost £1,500. Six nights in a smart one-bedroom flat in the West End are available for just over £2,549.

In a bid to head off the crisis, the council announced ‘temporary exemptions’ for some STLs.

But ASSC chief executive Fiona Campbell said the term ‘exemption’ is a misnomer: ‘It gives the impression nothing is required. 

But you still have to apply, pay £250, provide all safety certification, comply with 17 mandatory conditions and have your “exemption” approved.’ She added: ‘Industry repeatedly warned about the dire consequences that would follow from a draconian approach to short-term let regulation.

‘Edinburgh is now staring down the barrel of an accommodation crisis during the festivals.’

Tory MSP Mr Briggs said the crisis was the result of ‘yet more’ poor law-making by the SNP.

He added: ‘Other countries have been looking at Edinburgh and would love to have what it has.

‘This might be the chance for them to snatch it, so the world’s biggest arts festival might be about to become a shadow of its former self. 

That will have a huge impact on the capital economically.’

The Scottish Government defended the legislation and said: ‘The regulations grant temporary exemptions in recognition of the fact large-scale events can result in a significant demand for accommodation over a short period.’

Edinburgh council’s planning convener James Dalgleish said: ‘It’s important to strike the right balance between promoting our visitor economy while looking after residents who live here.’

The litmus test for this balance will be August. If it is off, it may be the festival and the multiple local businesses that depend on it which pay the highest prices of all.

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2024-05-02T22:38:25Z dg43tfdfdgfd