House of Commons - Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions

Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence

Memorandum by Traveller Consultancy Services (GTS 02)

1. BACKGROUND

The Traveller community in the UK today remains one of the most marginalized within our society, with somewhere in the region of a quarter of the population reported to be without any lawful home/stopping place. The social exclusion experienced by Travellers, both in terms of the general public and the provision of statutory services is unparalleled and they are reported to have:

— the highest infant mortality rates

— the lowest life expectancy

— the highest illiteracy rates

— the lowest educational achievement

2. There is little question that one of the central contributory factors to the difficulties faced by the Traveller community in the past and to this day is the disparity between the level and range of accommodation provision available to the settled population as opposed to the nomadic.

3. Nomadism, or the pursuit of an itinerant lifestyle, is formally recognised, both in the UK and in the rest of Europe, as a valid way of life. In spite of this, the UK government has more often restricted than facilitated it, forcing Travellers into an endless cycle of conflict with both members of the public and the authorities. Historically, the only significant attempt to address the accommodation needs of Travellers came about under the 1968 Caravan Sites Act.

4. CURRENT PROVISION AND LOCATION OF SITES

Despite the statutory duty imposed upon local authorities to provide sites under the Act and 100% exchequer grants from central government to finance this duty, it is widely recognised that insufficient sites were built.

5. As a result of the withdrawal of the duty to provide sites under the Criminal Justice & Public Order Act 1994, combined with the lack of political will driven by public "nimbyistic" opposition to Gypsy sites, severely inadequate numbers of new sites are being built to meet this decline and many existing pitches and sites have since been closed. Bi-annual caravan count figures published by the Government over the years give an indication of the level of loss. Between 1996 and 2003, there has been a total net loss of 596 pitches, averaging a loss of 76 pitches per year.

6. The location of sites is again an issue of grave concern, with many of the sites built under the 1968 Act having been constructed on old and unsafe land-fill sites, next to or underneath pylons, sewage works, heavy industrial sites, motorways and a range of other unsuitable locations where no other form of accommodation would have been permitted under standard Health & Safety regulations. There is little challenge by Travellers to these locations because they are often the only option available to them, any challenge is likely to result in either the Travellers concerned being evicted for breach of license agreement (ie, troublemaking) with no avenue to appeal and/or the site being closed, with no alternative provision available and no duty on the authority concerned to provide a new site.

7. The difficulties and inadequacies around site management are, in my view, also directly linked to the conditions and locations of sites. Their often unsafe and unsuitable location, the lack of basic up-keep and regular maintenance by local authorities and the lack of basic amenities such as gardens or safe play areas for children, combined with the exclusion of the residents in the construction, design and management of the sites, results in high levels of vandalism and a lack of incentive in residents to work with the local authority.

8. DEMAND FOR AND USE OF SITES

As a qualification on the need for sites, the recently published ODPM report by Pat Niner, entitled "The Provision and Condition of Local Authority Gypsy/Traveller sites in England" identified the need for an additional 1,000-2,000 residential pitches, and 2,000-2,500 transit pitches needed throughout the UK in the next five years to meet the current need.

9. In addition to this, the numbers for both the national count of caravans and that of unauthorised encampments, as reported by the ODPM, has consistently risen. In the case of national numbers overall, we see a steady increase from 13,393 reported in January 2001 to 14,022 in January 2003. Likewise, in the case of unauthorised encampments we see a national increase from 2,448 as reported in January 2001 to 3,038 in January 2003.

10. EXISTING FUNDING ARRANGEMENTS

Another factor that needs serious investigations is how the revenue from sites is used. Rents and service charges (for electric, water and waste) are often disproportionately high and yet authorities constantly complain that they do not have sufficient resources to maintain them. This excuse is usually the central argument in justifying the closure of pitches or even whole sites. However, when investigating this, I have not come across one authority in which the revenue from sites has gone back into the maintenance and management of the site concerned. Instead, site revenue appears to go into a central County Council coffer and is used to fund the cost of policing and responding to unauthorised encampments, including the closure, bunding and blocking of traditional stopping places, leaving little if any funds to properly maintain existing sites. This is clearly not a "best value" approach to resource management and only adds to the continuing deterioration in site provision.

11. THE GYPSY SITE REFURBISHMENT GRANT

As you will be aware, in an attempt to curtail the continued closure of local authority sites, Nick Rainsford (the then Minister for Housing, Planning and Construction) announced, in July 2002, that £17 million would be made available to local authorities over a three-year period to improve and refurbish a limited number of sites. There has proven to be such a need for finance to refurbish and reopen pitches and sites in disrepair, that in the first year's round of bidding alone, bids for £11.8 million were received from Local Authorities for a grant of only £3 million. In the second round, £16.8 million worth of bids were made for a grant of £6 million and in the third, bids totaling £18.4 million were received for a grant of £8 million. (Gypsy Sites Branch, ODPM).

12. However, the lack of authorised stopping places for Travellers nationally has now reached such a critical point that the government recently announced that it will be diverting some of the £17 million allocated for site refurbishment for the provision of new transit sites. It should be noted, however, that only two transit sites were awarded funding during 2002.

13. Although the Gypsy Sites Refurbishment Grants scheme will go some way to slowing down the closure of sites, there are grave concerns that the programme will fall far short of meeting the actual and ever-increasing need that exists. It is also difficult to see how the Gypsy Site Refurbishment Grant will have any long term benefit if the use of site revenue and site maintenance (discussed above) is not addressed.

14. SITE CHARACTERISTICS AND THE FACILITIES PROVIDED

These issues have already been addressed in large part above. Site locations are more often than not unsuitable and dangerous, conditions on sites appalling and facilities basic and neglected. All the local authority sites I have visited over the last seven years have been tarmacked and concreted areas, with no work or play facilities, only the most basic and often rundown utility blocks and surrounded by high fencing, usually topped by barbed or razor wire and often surrounded by deep ditching. They resemble ghettos and are a major factor in the marginalization of the Traveller community in the UK today.

15. MANAGEMENT OF UNAUTHORISED CAMPING

Until the issue of site provision is adequately addressed, unauthorised camping will never be properly manageable. Since the introduction of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, I am aware of some nineteen research, consultation, policy and guidance documents issued by central government that directly affect Gypsies and Travellers in relation to site provision (both private and public) and unauthorised camping. These run chronologically as follows:

January 1994—Circular 1/94:

May 1998—DETR letter to all Chief Planning Officers:

October 1998—DETR: Good Practice Guide on Managing Unauthorised Encampments:

1999—DETR part funded planning research:

November 1999—DETR letter to all Chief Planning Officers:

January 2000—revision of Planning Policy Guidance Note 12:

July 2000—revision of DOE Circular 18/94:

July 2000—revision of Planning Policy Guidance Note No. 3:

July 2000—DETR announces £17 million over three years:

August 2000—revision of Good Practice Guide on Unauthorised Encampments:

July 2001—revision of Planning Policy Guidance Note 2:

November 2001—DTLR Housing Research Summary 150:

July 2002—OPDM announce a radical overhaul of policy:

October 2002—ODPM commissioned research report:

October 2002—ODPM announces revision of Gypsy Sites Refurbishment Grants:

December 2002—ODPM consultation document, Draft Framework Guide on Managing Unauthorised Gypsy/Traveller Encampments.

March 2003—ODPM letter from Tony McNulty MP:

April 2003—ODPM consultation document, Managing Unauthorised Camping Operational Guidance.

July 2003—ODPM report Local Authority Gypsy/Traveller Sites in England:

16. In overview, there is also the over-riding indication that the Criminal Justice & Public Order Act 1994 has failed to remedy the issue of unauthorised encampments and many would argue, has only made the situation worse. The ongoing and substantial numbers of guidance, research and policy documents produced over the 10 years since the Act came into force is a testimony to this.

17. It is interesting to note that there have only been four documents, notably all in the last two years, recognizing the need for increased site provision.

18. The latest research, published by the Institute of Public Policy Research on 29 January 2004, has also highlighted the urgent need to resolve the accommodation needs of Traveller and makes reference to many of the points raised throughout this submission, including inequalities in health, education and accommodation provision as well as the need for policy and legislation to adequately address the current situation.

19. Lord Avebury, author of the Caravan Sites Act 1968, recently carried out a survey of all local authorities shown to have unauthorised encampments, basing his research on the bi-annual count as of January 2003. The objective of the survey was to assess firstly whether they had carried out and published a Homelessness strategy and secondly, whether Travellers are mentioned within it.

20. Eight authorities appear not to have produced strategies at all. Of the 137 authorities that did produce strategies, 72% failed to make any reference to Travellers at all, despite having reported unauthorised encampments in the last bi-annual count. Another issue highlighted by the research was that hardly any of the authorities surveyed made reference to their Race Equality Schemes nor was there any indication in any of the strategies of consultation with local or national Traveller organisations, or of advice being given by the authority's own Gypsy/Traveller officers.

21. In addition to this, the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 introduced a general duty on all public bodies to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination: promote equality of opportunity and promote good race relations between people of different racial groups. According to the Commission for Racial Equality, the duties set out in the Act mean, in practice, that public authorities must take account of racial equality in the day to day work of policy-making, service delivery, employment practices and other functions. As Gypsies and Irish Travellers are distinct ethnic minority groups, an assessment of racial impact must be carried out on all policy that may adversely affect them.

22. However, this is often not done in the case of Travellers. The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) recently published a report (December 2003) entitled "Provision and Support for Traveller Pupils" (HMI 455) which states:

All authorities are responding to the requirements of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act. In one in four authorities, the Traveller education service had made a significant contribution to this work. Many authorities have clear statements about the inclusion of pupils in education. However, in too many authorities, the ways in which they deal with unauthorised encampments contradict the principles set out in their public statements on inclusion, educational entitlement and race equality. Such contradictions undermine relationships and inhibit the effectiveness of the Traveller education services and other agencies

23. ODPM statistical information on caravans, sites and families: The bi-annual count figures published by the ODPM are widely viewed as inaccurate. The count is only a snapshot reflecting two single days of the year, and not the time between them. There are concerns that the numbers registered are actually lower than the true figures, perhaps due to a deliberate undercounting, or to not being aware of where Travellers are. Furthermore, some local authorities do not provide returns at all of caravans within their areas. In fact, it would appear that somewhere in the region of 23% of authorities listed in the January 2003 bi-annual count had not returned figures, as those published were estimated using previous count data.

24. In 1991 the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys published the results of research, commissioned by the (then) Department of the Environment, into the Gypsy Count. In their introductory summary they state that; "The main impetus for the research arose from a concern about the accuracy of the information collected. There are three possible sources of inaccuracy:

— The omission of families whose whereabouts are not known to the counting officer.

— The deliberate omission of families.

— Inconsistencies between areas in the groups covered and the procedures and definitions used."

(Counting Gypsies by Hazel Green, Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, 1991)

25. As you will again be aware, new research into the Gypsy Count has just been completed by Pat Niner (commissioned by the ODPM), which again identifies many of the issues mentioned in the above research. The new research calls for the counts to be reviewed and its purpose clarified. (Counting Gypsies and Travellers: A Review of the Gypsy Caravan Count System/February 2004)

Conclusion: Although I welcome the Committee's Inquiry into Gypsy and Traveller sites and am happy to make as many submission as are necessary, I and my colleagues in the field are dismayed that yet another debate on the issues raised above has been requested. There is only one answer to both the unacceptable difficulties experienced by Travellers in the UK today and the "problem" of unauthorised camping—and that answer has remained the same since the 1968 Act came into force and has been reflected time and again in the relentless stream of research and policy reviews that have been carried out over the years. If a fraction of the resources and funds that have been expended on policy research and on reactive responses to unauthorised camping over the years had been spent on sustainable and effective site provision, there would be no need for further debate on this issue.

There are a wide range of avenues available to the government to address the needs of Travellers in a politically sensitive way and the work of the Traveller Law Reform Coalition is a testimony to this. I strongly urge the committee to seriously consider these options and ensure that effective and sustainable action is finally taken to address this situation once and for all.



© Parliamentary copyright 2004	Prepared 17 June 2004