Fair deal for Travellers and the settled community
Travellers who play by the rules will get the same rights as other mobile home residents under new plans.
Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has announced plans to give travellers who play by the rules the same rights as other mobile home residents and incentives to encourage councils to provide more authorised sites. At the same time, top-down Whitehall planning rules on travellers which ministers believe has undermined community cohesion and harmed the countryside will be scrapped.
A fair deal
The plans announced by Mr Pickles include:
Stronger tenancy rights on authorised council sites
Travellers on official local authority sites will benefit from changes to legislation that will give them the same rights and responsibilities as residents on other mobile home sites.
New incentives to build authorised sites
The government has announced that councils will be given incentives through the New Homes Bonus scheme to deliver new housing. Ministers are announcing today that this will include authorised traveller site so that councils will get financial benefits for building authorised sites where they are needed
Abolition of Whitehall guidance
Ministers are today announcing their intention to revoke what they regard as flawed Whitehall Planning Circulars on travellers. The planning rules have been criticised by many local councils, some of whom have said this has compelled them to build on the countryside and compulsorily purchase land. Such rules have, ministers believe, undermined community cohesion by creating a perception amongst many people of ‘different’ planning rules for the travelling community and for the settled community. Planning rules should be the same for all.
Stronger powers for councils to tackle unauthorised development
Mr Pickles is looking at ways to strengthen the powers available to councils to more effectively tackle unauthorised development, which cause tensions within communities. This will include action against speculative, unscrupulous private developers.
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, said:
“Unauthorised developments have created tensions between travellers and the settled population. We want to redress the balance and put fairness back into communities.
“Like the rest of the population, the majority of travellers are law-abiding citizens and they should have the same chance of having a safe place to live and bring up their children. These changes will put travellers who play by the rules on an equal footing.
“But at the same time, we will not sit back and allow people to bypass the planning rules that everyone else has to abide by. That’s why we will strengthen the powers that councils have to enforce against breaches of planning rules and tackle the abuse of the planning system.”