EAST Lothian saw the biggest fall in the number of short-term holiday lets registered in any part of the UK last year, as the number of bed spaces in the county fell by more than 1,000.

Figures released by the Office of National Statistics have revealed that, while short-term lets appear to be growing in popularity, the number registered in the county fell by 17 per cent.

And they revealed that, while the number of properties and bed spaces had fallen, the number of hosts listed operating them remained the same.

The figures, which have been highlighted by building maintenance experts SFG20, reveal that while nationally the number of lets fell by less than one per cent across Scotland – where new legislation introduced last year required property owners to licence them – the drop in East Lothian was the biggest.

It said that, in January last year, there were 6,320 short term holiday let bed spaces in East Lothian; by December, the number had fallen to 5,310.

By comparison, Midlothian had 1,330 in January last year, rising to 2,060 by December, while in the Scottish Borders the number went from 8,250 to 9,010 over the same period.

The number of listings identified by using data from Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia in East Lothian also fell from 1,160 to 960, while going up in Midlothian from 270 to 330 and the Scottish Borders from 1,900 to 1,990.

However, the number of hosts listed in East Lothian between January and December remained the same – 600.

The figures come as an independent report commissioned by North Berwick Environment and Heritage Trust said that the number of holiday lets listed in the town – which has the largest percentage of short-term lets in the county – had risen by 100 over a year.

READ MORE: Number of short-term lets in North Berwick up 30 per cent in a year

SFG20 said that, while several other Scottish areas such as Edinburgh (eight per cent), Perth and Kinross (seven per cent) and Moray West (five per cent) also saw a decrease in registered lets, Corby in Merseyside was the only English area to see a decrease and that was still lower than East Lothian at 10 per cent.

A spokesperson for East Lothian Council said: “Whilst we do not have figures that mirror the ONS data in detail, we would have expected some decrease in short-term lets, following the national introduction of licensing in 2023.

“We will be reviewing data from various sources and datasets to compare with our annual tourism monitoring.”