Letter: Owners group offers help with holiday park regulations 'minefield'

I am the founder of a group called the Holiday Park Action Group. We have almost 22,000 members from across the UK who are, or have been, owners of caravans, such as referred to in the article.

Earlier in the year I gave a speech to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Holiday Parks and Campsites. As a result of that speech the group wrote directly, to the then, Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove. This is an extract from that letter:

“Parliamentarians at our meeting in March cited examples of rogue holiday park operators in their constituency where local authorities are seemingly unable to use their enforcement powers."

We are fully aware of the amount of people living on holiday parks across the UK, which is likely to number in the tens of thousands. We deal with many owners on a daily basis who are now being made homeless as a result of the authorities being made aware of the scale of the issue, following the coronavirus lockdown periods.

Many planning authorities are now enforcing planning regulations and local authority site licences, but such enforcement can only be taken against park operators.

What you may not realise, if you have no experience of this area of business, is that many of these park operators mis-sold caravans as having residential status, when in fact they were on parks which were only licensed as holiday parks. This is clearly in breach of the consumer protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. Enforcement of those regulations is the responsibility for Trading Standards.

This is a quote from MP Helen Whatley from a Parliamentary debate she secured in 2019, relating to these issues. "Residents of leisure park homes in my constituency appear to have been mis-sold their properties by rogue site owners, and they are now vulnerable to exploitative charges and intimidation."

With regard to the payment of council tax by caravan owners, it is not as straightforward an issue as councillors may believe.

Many benefits are payable by the state to people who are living in caravans, even in the knowledge that they are not lawfully permitted to reside at such properties. This is a quote from Tendring District Council following our group's enquiries on the matter: “I can confirm that housing benefit is paid when there is a rental liability, even if this may be contravening the rules on holiday/mobile home sites.

If we receive a claim that is for a mobile home on a holiday home only site, we list the caravan into the council tax listings and refer to planning for them to take the steps regarding the site rules not being followed.”

Following years of investigation by our group, and all the information that we have gathered, the evidence is very clear in relation to the issue Craven Council is debating. The lack of monitoring and enforcement action by various council departments over decades is a substantial contributing factor to the many issues you are facing.

Not only are the councils failing on that level, they are also failing to protect their own local businesses by failing to enforce breaches of competition rules breached by the majority of park operators.

It is more often than not that local businesses cannot compete for business on these parks as park operators refuse to allow the caravan owners the right to use local service providers such as gas engineers, cleaners, electricians etc, in direct contravention of trading regulations. Once again it is local Trading Standards responsibility to enforce such rules, and their failure to do so has a wider economic impact for your communities.

We are very experienced and knowledgeable on all matters associated with holiday parks and as Craven District Council appears to have grasped the nettle, with a local review, we would be willing to assist, if it would be helpful.

Carole Keeble

Representing 21,750 caravan/lodge/chalet owners

Holiday Park Action

Covent Garden

London