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Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Consequential Amendments to the Mobile Homes Act 1983) Order 2011

My Lords, I apologise that this speech will be rather longer than I would have wished, but I shall get through it as quickly as I can. The Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Consequential Amendments to the Mobile Homes Act 1983) Order 2011, the Mobile Homes Act 1983 (Amendment of Schedule 1 and Consequential Amendments) (England) Order 2011 and the Mobile Homes Act 1983 (Jurisdiction of Residential Property Tribunals) (England) Order 2011 were laid in the House on 31 January and, subject to your Lordships’ approval and the approval of Members in the other place, our intention is for them to come into force on 30 April. I turn first to the Mobile Homes Act 1983 (Jurisdiction of Residential Property Tribunals) (England) Order 2011. There are some 2,000 or so park home sites in England providing around 85,000 affordable homes. The Government value the park home sector, which provides an alternative to mainstream housing for many thousands of households in this country, often older people. The Government wish to ensure a well run sector in which disputes between residents and site owners can be resolved informally by negotiation and agreement. However, it will not always be possible for parties to resolve disputes between themselves. It is vital, therefore, for there to be an effective independent resolution system. Often residents complain that they are unable to effectively challenge their site owner's decisions or enforce their rights because of the complexity and cost of court proceedings. Site owners, too, are concerned about the expense and delay in dispute resolution that court action can cause. Some of the responses to the consultations suggest that there are sharp practices in the sector and that unscrupulous site owners can be obstructive and even threatening when residents try to exercise their lawful rights. The transfer of jurisdiction will provide residents facing these abuses with a quick and cheaper means of challenging such behaviour. The aim of the order is to create a level playing field between site owners and residents in resolving disputes and enforcing their rights. It will do this by transferring most dispute resolution and other proceedings from county courts to residential property tribunals. The order has been long awaited by the park home community. I am sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Graham of Edmonton, is not here, as he has been very much in the forefront of this and pushing for change. I hope that the fact that he is not here does not mean that he is too unwell. The order will apply to all mobile home sites, including park home sites and privately managed Gypsy and Traveller sites, as well as those owned by local authorities. The previous Government originally consulted on this proposal in May 2008 and it was welcomed by the majority of resident and site owner consultees, while a small minority, including representatives of Gypsies and Travellers and some site owners, preferred to retain the court to resolve disputes. Although, following further consultation, the previous Government announced in December 2009 that they intended to transfer the jurisdiction of the courts to hear most types of disputes to residential property tribunals, the transfer did not take place. It has been a priority of my right honourable friend the Minister of State for Housing and Local Government to introduce a framework whereby residents and owners of park home sites are treated on an equal footing in dispute resolution. That is why he announced on 14 July last year that he intended to implement the transfer, subject to Parliament’s approval. The order transfers dispute resolution and other proceedings under the Mobile Homes Act from county courts to residential property tribunals, except applications to terminate an agreement, which will remain within the county court’s jurisdiction. However, if the ground on which termination is sought is that the home is in disrepair, this fact will in the future need to be established in the tribunal before the court can be asked if it is reasonable to terminate the agreement. The tribunal will be able to deal with such matters as pitch fee reviews or applications for approval of a purchaser of a home that arise after 30 April, as well as other matters, such as re-siting of homes, recognition of qualifying residents’ associations and other contractual disputes. Tribunals are cheaper and easier to use than the courts. In some cases, such as those relating to pitch fee reviews, no fee will be payable to make an application. Where there is a fee, it will be set for a single application at £150—and this will be waived for applicants in receipt of certain state benefits. Unlike in the courts, applicants and those defending cases do not risk having costs awarded against them if they lose. The tribunal does not award costs in favour of a party because he or she wins, but it can impose penal costs up to a maximum of £5,000 if one of the parties to the proceedings has acted unreasonably. Of course, we recognise that transferring dispute resolution to the tribunal will not be a solution to all the problems that park home residents face from the minority of unscrupulous operators in the park home sector, although it will go some way towards making it easier to challenge their behaviour. My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Housing and Local Government announced on 10 February that he proposed to consult on a range of measures that will help to address these problems by giving further powers and tools to local authorities to better monitor and enforce the licences that they grant for park home and other caravan sites and to improve the buying and selling process of park homes by giving new powers to this tribunal to intervene when site owners have unreasonably blocked sales in the past. He plans to consult on these measures in the spring. I turn to the two orders that relate to the application of the Mobile Homes Act 1983 to local authority Gypsy and Traveller sites. I have given their full titles before and I am not going to say them again. These orders will come into force in tandem with and as a consequence of the commencement of Section 318 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. Section 318 removes the provision that currently excludes local authority Gypsy and Traveller sites from the protections of the Mobile Homes Act 1983. Section 318 will be brought into force by a commencement order that does not require parliamentary procedure. On 29 August 2010, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government announced his intention to apply the Mobile Homes Act 1983 to local authority Gypsy and Traveller sites by commencing Section 318 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008. This is part of a package of measures to provide a fair deal for Travellers and the settled community. Gypsies and Travellers who play by the rules and live on authorised sites will have the same protection against eviction as people living on other types of residential mobile home sites, such as park home sites. The new homes bonus will reward communities that provide additional authorised Traveller sites. Funding will be available to councils for the provision of authorised sites through the Traveller pitch funding scheme. Both schemes will begin in April 2011. Councils will get stronger powers to tackle the unauthorised development of sites. Proposals to limit the opportunities for retrospective planning applications, in relation to any form of unauthorised development, are set out in the Localism Bill. The role of elected councils in planning for Traveller sites will be strengthened by the abolition of regional strategies and the replacement of Planning Circulars ODPM 01/2006 and 04/2007 with a short, light-touch new policy. The legal basis for regional strategies will be abolished through the Localism Bill, and a consultation on the replacement of the planning circulars will be published shortly. The rights and responsibilities of Gypsies and Travellers living on permanent local authority pitches are currently covered by the Caravan Sites Act 1968. This provides only limited protection from eviction and harassment. In particular, in order to evict a resident who might have lived on the site for a number of years, a local authority need only give a minimum of 28 days’ notice to terminate the licence and obtain a court order for possession. The court does not have the opportunity to consider whether it is reasonable to grant the order, although it can suspend the possession order for up to a year at a time. The European Court of Human Rights ruling in the case of Connors v United Kingdom in 2004 found the lack of procedural safeguards offered by the Caravan Sites Act 1968 against eviction to be in breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. By contrast, the Mobile Homes Act provides additional protections to occupiers of residential mobile home sites. Local authorities will need to apply to the court on specific grounds to terminate any agreement for a permanent pitch, and the court will only authorise termination if it is satisfied that it is reasonable to do so. Following the Connors v UK judgment, the Mobile Homes Act will provide legal clarity for local authorities so that when they need to take action against those who break the terms of their agreement, they will be less at risk of facing legal challenge. Finally, the third order amends Schedule 1 to the Mobile Homes Act 1983. Schedule 1 sets out the contractual terms that are automatically inserted into every agreement to station a mobile home on a residential caravan site where that home is the occupier’s only or main residence. These implied terms explain the rights and responsibilities of the resident and the site owner. When Section 318 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 is commenced, the Mobile Homes Act 1983 and its implied terms will apply for the first time to all local authority Gypsy and Traveller sites. During the passage of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, local authorities and Gypsies and Travellers raised concerns about how the existing terms in the Mobile Homes Act could impact on the operation of local authority sites. In particular, they were concerned that the right to assign an agreement to occupy a pitch, by selling or giving it to another person, could create a market in pitches. The previous Government consulted on making a number of amendments to the implied terms for local authority and county council Gypsy and Traveller sites. There were 52 responses to the consultation paper, from local authorities, county councils, Gypsy and Traveller representative organisations and the legal profession. The vast majority of respondents agreed with the proposals in that consultation. For permanent pitches on local authority and county council Gypsy and Traveller sites, the new bespoke implied terms are set out in the order as a new Chapter 4. Following consultation, the only existing implied terms which have been removed are those on sale and assignment of mobile homes. Three further amendments to the implied terms will require the local authority to repair facilities provided on pitches; extend the definition of ““essential repair and emergency work”” to include the facilities provided on the pitch; and enable the local authority to move caravans to a different site in order to carry out extensive works. Local authorities raised concerns through the consultation that the existing Mobile Homes Act, with its security of tenure, would not allow them to continue to operate transit sites. These sites, which temporarily accommodate Travellers passing through an area, are essential to meet local demand from Travellers temporarily working in the area or attending weddings or traditional fairs. They also help local authorities and the police to enforce against unauthorised encampments, where travellers stop on land they do not own. Chapter 1 of the order therefore defines a transit pitch as a pitch on which a person is entitled to station a mobile home under the terms of the agreement for a fixed period of up to three months. Chapter 3 provides a more basic set of implied terms for transit pitches and inserts three terms relating to the termination of the agreement and notice periods. These terms will ensure that transit pitches can continue to operate in the flexible way that they do now, but within the context of the Mobile Homes Act. The Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Consequential Amendments to the Mobile Homes Act 1983) Order 2011 amends Sections 1 and 2 of the Mobile Homes Act 1983. It disapplies the right of an occupier of a transit pitch to apply for an order where the written statement has not been provided or for the express terms of the agreement to be varied or deleted within the first six months of the agreement. The agreement to station a caravan on a transit pitch will last for a maximum of three months. The provisions in Sections 1 and 2 would not therefore work, as it would not be possible for these matters to be considered and the order given effect before the transit pitch agreement had ended. There are approximately 85,000 households on 2,000 park home sites, and 4,500 Gypsy and Traveller pitches on local authority and county council-owned land in England, to whom these new rights and procedures will apply. The orders offer and provide fairness and a level playing field between these residents and their site owners while not imposing unreasonable burdens on business or local authorities. They have been long awaited. I therefore commend them to the Committee.