Draft Transfer of Tribunal Functions (Mobile Homes Act 2013 and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2014
The Committee consisted of the following Members:
† Ainsworth, Mr Bob (Coventry North East) (Lab)
† Beith, Sir Alan (Berwick-upon-Tweed) (LD)
† Burns, Conor (Bournemouth West) (Con)
† Chapman, Jenny (Darlington) (Lab)
† Dowd, Jim (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab)
† Evennett, Mr David (Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty's Treasury)
† Harris, Rebecca (Castle Point) (Con)
Hepburn, Mr Stephen (Jarrow) (Lab)
† Holloway, Mr Adam (Gravesham) (Con)
† Scott, Mr Lee (Ilford North) (Con)
Shannon, Jim (Strangford) (DUP)
† Skidmore, Chris (Kingswood) (Con)
† Stuart, Ms Gisela (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab)
† Stunell, Sir Andrew (Hazel Grove) (LD)
† Turner, Karl (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)
† Vara, Mr Shailesh (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice)
† Winnick, Mr David (Walsall North) (Lab)
† Wollaston, Dr Sarah (Totnes) (Con)
Margaret McKinnon, Committee Clerk
† attended the Committee
Tenth Delegated Legislation Committee
Wednesday 2 July 2014
[Anne Main in the Chair]
Draft Transfer of Tribunal Functions (Mobile Homes Act 2013 and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2014
2.30 pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Shailesh Vara): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Transfer of Tribunal Functions (Mobile Homes Act 2013 and Miscellaneous Amendments) Order 2014.
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Main. I believe I am doing so for the first time, although I am afraid that it may not be for a long time, because I anticipate that the debate will be short. I cannot speak for the Opposition, but I think that on this matter we may be in agreement.
The purpose of the draft order is to transfer the appellate jurisdiction in the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 and the Mobile Homes Act 2013 from residential property tribunals to the Property Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal, which celebrated its first anniversary yesterday, and to make other changes in the law in connection with that transfer. The order also makes changes to certain forms required to be used under the Housing Act 1988 with reference to the relevant tribunal. It applies to England only.
Residential property tribunals have jurisdiction to settle disputes between owners of park homes and their site owners and to hear appeals on contractual matters arising under the Mobile Homes Act 1983. Such dispute resolution was transferred to the First-tier Tribunal when it was launched on 1 July 2013. In the meantime, the Mobile Homes Act 2013 received Royal Assent on 26 March 2013. That important Act started as a private Member’s Bill, which was introduced and navigated through the House with great skill by my hon. Friend the Member for Waveney (Peter Aldous). The Government were pleased to support it.
The 2013 Act reflects the Government’s commitment to ensure that park home owners’ rights are respected and their health and safety protected. It introduced a reformed local authority licensing regime, modernising the scheme in the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960. The 2013 Act came into force on 1 April 2014 and gives local authorities real teeth for the first time to ensure that park home sites are properly maintained and managed. Local authorities may now require works to be carried out to ensure that licence conditions are complied with and, in the case of an emergency, may enter the site and do the works themselves, recovering costs from the site owner.
We want to ensure that local authorities act proportionately and that site owners are not required to carry out works that do not come within the terms of the site licence or that are excessive. That is why the Act provides for appeals against local authority decisions to be heard by residential property tribunals.
Rebecca Harris (Castle Point) (Con): The Minister will be aware that I have a large number of park home residents in my constituency. Will he clarify whether the draft order will incur any extra costs for residents, on top of the tribunal fees paid at the moment?
Mr Vara: My understanding is that the fee for making an application to the Property Chamber relating to a dispute over a mobile home is £155. The fee is set at the same level as the fee applied to other applications that follow similar tribunal processes. I hope that that meets with my hon. Friend’s approval.
As I said, residential property tribunals were already dealing with disputes under the Mobile Homes Act 1983 and were familiar with the issues in that niche part of the housing market. Furthermore, the tribunals already dealt with appeals on housing conditions and licensing in the private rented sector. It was therefore logical that the tribunals be given the appellate jurisdiction in the new licensing regime and can take over existing licensing functions under the 1960 Act from magistrates courts.
It is now necessary to transfer the functions conferred on the defunct residential property tribunals under the 1960 and 2013 Acts to the Property Chamber, so that appeals against licensing decisions may be determined by the First-tier Tribunal, which is what the draft order sets out to achieve. The transfer order also amends the 2013 fees order to allow fees to be charged for applications regarding mobile homes site rules and under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act.
I commend the draft order to the Committee.
2.34 pm
Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Main. I will not repeat everything the Minister has said about the nature of the order. We support it; we supported the 2013 Act as it was going through the House.
While the majority of park home sites are owned and managed by fair and professional individuals and are largely unaffected by the new Act, clearly there are some people who do not run their parks well. Many of us have heard about them in our constituencies.
Where local authorities decide that they need to take action—impose a large fine, for example—the Act puts in place a safeguard for the owner by providing a right of appeal to the first-tier tribunal, and for owners themselves to take cases to the tribunal.
I am aware that there are still serious issues for some residents in park homes, so I urge the Minister to monitor how well used the Act is. If people bring cases should they need to do so, we should ensure that the Act helps to change the experience of some home owners on the ground. When things go wrong, they tend to go badly wrong. Often, the people on the sharp end of that are not best equipped to take cases or to do much at all about it. With that, we support the order.
2.36 pm
Mr Vara: I thank the hon. Member for Darlington for her contribution and comments. I assure her that we will be keeping an eye on matters to ensure that everything is working properly.
Conor Burns (Bournemouth West) (Con): I too have a number of mobile and park home sites in my constituency, as does my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point. May I welcome the Government’s interest in the matter, and the fact that successive Housing Ministers since the coalition was formed have met councillors from the areas that have such homes in my constituency?
I would like to echo the point made by the hon. Member for Darlington and ask the Government to keep a watching brief on the matter, because there are
some scurrilous park home owners out there. I hope that the coalition will continue to do everything it can to protect the interests of park home owners.Mr Vara: I am happy to assure my hon. Friend that we will keep an eye on the matter. It is important that all parties concerned are treated fairly.