In short: On 25 June 2026 Argyll and Bute Council agreed to consult on Short-Term Let Control Area designations for four island and peninsula geographies. The Association of Scotland's Self-Caterers has warned it may challenge the designations legally. Operators in the affected areas should be securing Certificates of Lawfulness now, before designation - whether or not the legal challenge is brought and whether or not it succeeds.
On 25 June 2026, Argyll and Bute Council agreed to consult on Short-Term Let Control Area designations covering four proposed geographies: Mull and Iona; Coll and Tiree; Islay, Jura and Colonsay; and the Lorn and Inner Isles. The Council framed the move as part of a wider response to a declared housing emergency across the area.
The ASSC's position
The Association of Scotland's Self-Caterers has publicly warned it may bring a legal challenge to any designations that follow the consultation. The ASSC's characterisation of the evidence base is that it does not adequately establish the housing-supply link the Council is relying on. That is a serious argument, competently made, and it is a challenge that could - in principle - succeed.
The point for operators is: it also could not succeed. And it may not even be brought.
Why operators should not wait on the outcome of the challenge
Three considerations are worth being clear about.
1. The challenge, if brought, will take time. Judicial review of a planning designation is not a fast process. During any challenge, the designation will very likely be in force. Operators whose planning position is not clean during that period will be exposed to enforcement even if the designation is later quashed. 2. The challenge may narrow the designation rather than defeat it. A court that finds a defect in one geography's evidence base may leave designations in the other geographies untouched. Operators cannot rely on a challenge to protect them if their specific area is not the one the court unpicks. 3. A Certificate of Lawfulness secured before designation is unaffected by whether the designation is challenged, quashed, sustained, or expanded. It is a determination on the lawfulness of the operator's use, not on the validity of the Council's policy. It is the operator's own asset, held by the operator.
The window and the calendar
Consultation is under way. Designation, if the Council proceeds, will require a formal Council decision followed by Scottish Ministerial confirmation before it takes effect. That sequence takes months, not weeks - but it is the process now visibly running, and it will produce an outcome.
For an operator on Mull, Iona, Islay or the other named areas, the practical position is straightforward: the six to twelve months ahead are the window in which a Certificate of Lawfulness application can be made against the pre-designation policy context. That window will close - not because the option becomes legally impossible, but because it becomes materially harder as the political weather around the designation tightens.
What operators should do
1. Take advice on planning status now. Not after consultation. Not after the ASSC challenge is filed or resolved. Now. 2. For long-established uses (10 years or more), the Certificate of Lawfulness route is often the strongest. The evidence takes time to compile, and there is no advantage to starting late. 3. For portfolios, address the portfolio in one exercise. The cost of a single portfolio review is materially lower than the cost of defending each unit individually. 4. Support the ASSC's challenge if you consider it well-founded - but do not treat it as a plan. Legal challenges to planning designations succeed sometimes and fail other times. A Certificate of Lawfulness is your own certainty.
Sources: Argyll and Bute Council - Housing emergency actions; ASSC - Legal challenge warning; Lochside Press - Legal warning on Control Areas.
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