The Edinburgh Fringe is the biggest performing arts festival in the world, contributing around £200million to the Scottish economy. It promotes a positive image of the city and of Scotland across the world as welcoming, creative and open and attracts thousands of performers of all types, who give an estimated 59,000 performances across 330 fringe venues.

The cost of accommodation while performing at the fringe has long been a concern, but this year the cost seems to have increased exponentially on previous years. There is a real danger that without concerted action to address this in future years, the cost could put the fringe beyond the reach of a growing number of us - performers, comedians and other participants. This could have a serious impact on the diversity and quality of acts on offer that could risk its future success.

These rising costs appear to be due to a number of factors including recent changes to tenancy agreements and there are a number of further measures under consideration that may also affect the availability and price of short-term lets. It is very welcome that the Scottish Government is consulting on these measures in the round. It would not be right for us to us to comment on the merits or disadvantages of alternative proposals, which are rightly the decision of local communities, but we call on all stakeholders to investigate how provision could be made for performers and others working at the fringe to be able to access affordable accommodation.

Please sign the petition to ask all stakeholders - including the Scottish Government, as part of its review of short-term lets, City of Edinburgh Council and Edinburgh University - to work with Equity and others to investigate how provision could be made for performers and others working at the fringe to be able to access affordable accommodation next year and in future years, to ensure its future success, diversity and sustainability in the years ahead.