Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

Today is a good day for the law-abiding citizens of this country and a bad day for those wanting something for nothing. Since my election nearly 18 months ago, I have been campaigning to criminalise squatting, including in an excellent Westminster Hall debate with the Minister about a year ago. I congratulate the Government on tabling the new clause. I wish to dispel once and for all the myth that squatters and homeless people are one and the same. My Hove and Portslade area contains both wealth and deprivation. It is a Mecca for every character imaginable, and that is what makes it such a wonderfully diverse place to live. Homelessness is an issue, and we have a fantastic support network of local charities, including Emmaus, Brighton Housing Trust, the YMCA and Off the Fence, which looks after a great number of vulnerable people through Project Antifreeze—indeed, I will visit Off the Fence again this Friday. It is our duty to look after homeless people. I fully support all the excellent work being done and the Government's commitment to do even more. In my experience, squatters rarely fit the profile of the vulnerable people whom we should be looking out for. Serial squatters know the law. They are web-savvy and highly resourceful. They run rings around the law, and what professional squatters lack in respect for other people's property they make up for in guile and tenacity. They are organised and frequently menacing, as we saw last night outside this place. When they entered a property in Hove recently, a web advert went out, and squatters from as far afield as Bristol turned up to party. They were not vulnerable persons looking for a bed for the night. Many simply wanted to have a good time in a nice city for nothing. In another case, a lady in my constituency sadly died. While her family were sorting out the funeral arrangements and the sale of her estate, the squatters moved in. They refused to leave no matter that they knew they were causing distress. Ten thousand pounds in legal fees later, the family finally got their mother's treasured keepsakes back. In another instance, when evicted from one property, the squatters simply moved in next door. I understand that they did so through a hole in the wall they made while waiting for the eviction notice. Those examples are unacceptable and must be stopped. In all cases, there were no recriminations against the squatters, who got no criminal record and no financial penalty, and no damages were paid to the homeowners. The squatters simply move out of one property and into the next with the knowledge that they can do so under existing law. I have discussed the issue with Sussex police, whose powers are limited even when the property is clearly being lived in. A police inspector in the city of Brighton and Hove tells me that in 18 years, no one has been prosecuted for any offence directly in relation to squatting. The squatters know that. Even where utilities are being used illegally or where there is forced entry, there are usually no witnesses, so arrest is often difficult. A local resident asked me in my local paper, The Argus:"““If squatting is a practice that is socially unacceptable, how is leaving a property empty for more than a year any more acceptable?””" My answer is simple: it is not acceptable at all. I have contacted my local council on a number of occasions about the issue of empty buildings belonging to exploitative developers, and I fully support the Government's moves to use taxation as encouragement. However, we should be careful not to embrace squatting on the principle that our enemy's enemy is a friend. We must get tough on bad landlords soon, but buildings can be temporarily empty for all sorts of reasons, many of which are entirely acceptable, as we have heard. The pro-squatting movement would have us believe three things, the first of which is that the existing powers are enough. They are not. In all situations, including even when a property is being lived in, a justice of the peace or commissioner of oaths must be involved before the police can remove the squatters, which adds to the delay. In that delay, the squatters are sleeping in people's beds, watching their TV and eating their food. Secondly, pro-squatters would have us believe that squatters actually improve the properties they are in. I have thrown down the gauntlet to every squatting organisation in the country to show me one single squat where that is the case, and so far not one has been forthcoming. I am not surprised. Damage and destruction is the norm. Squatters do not run around with the hoover before they leave. Thirdly, pro-squatters would have us believe that if squatters were not squatting, they would be homeless and a burden on the state. Not only is that simply not true, but even if it were, squatting would not be the answer. Support and assistance from the state is to be encouraged for those who need it rather than living in often unfit and dangerous conditions. The new clause is a good piece of additional legislation that most people in the country will welcome. More could have been added, and I hope it will in due course. We might find that some of the exemptions should not be exemptions. I will be keeping a close eye on them to ensure that they do not turn into loopholes or simply displace targets for the professional squatters. However, I support this important legislation, and I am pleased to have played some part in progressing it to this stage.