My Lords, Section 225 of the Housing Act 2004 requires housing authorities to carry out an assessment of the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers who reside in or resort to their area, and Section 226 allows the Secretary of State to issue guidance on the carrying out of this responsibility. An order was subsequently made in 2007 about implementing the provisions of the 2004 Act.
The Bill seeks to change the situation. There are two ways of looking at its provisions in respect of Gypsy and Traveller sites. Either they will absolve councils of their responsibility for planning to meet the needs of these groups for sites, which will make a difference to the position laid down in the 2004 in terms of what will happen on the ground; or, as the impact assessment suggests, it will not. If the latter is indeed the case, the only reason for the Government to include Clause 115 in the Bill is to throw a bone to councils and some communities that wish to make as little provision as possible, preferably none, by implying that the Government are responding to opposition to such provision, which unfortunately is fairly widespread. Such would be the sort of clients who might be disposed to engage the assistance of an organisation called Planning Direct. This organisation’s comments on the relevant clause distastefully boast of a 100% success rate in stopping Traveller sites for parish councils, for which in its publication it helpfully supplies contact details. If the Bill makes or is intended to make little or no difference, why does it include the provision in the first place?
Another organisation, Planning Resource, which describes itself as providing independent intelligence for planning professionals, reports divided opinions among planners. The strategic planning convenor for the Planning Officers Society believes that it will have little impact, but also believes that there is some real concern over councils misinterpreting the rules and that the change is,
“almost like handing local authorities, which are reluctant to plan for travellers, an excuse not to do it”.
Others, in fairness, take a more positive view of the change, but Marc Willers QC declared that he has,
“no doubt that site provision will reduce and that the shortage of accommodation for Gypsies and travellers will increase if the requirement to assess their needs is subsumed into a more general housing needs assessment and the guidance on assessing their needs is swept away”—
that is to say, the problems will increase when an assessment of their needs is no longer required.
The all-party parliamentary group for Gypsies and Travellers echoes those concerns, describing the combination of the new Planning Policy for Traveller Sites, published last August, and the Bill as making for a “complex, confusing system”. It adds that the Traveller site planning policy leaves open questions as to the assessment of,
“the needs of Gypsies and Travellers within and outside the new planning definition”.
Moreover, most authorities will have completed their general housing needs assessment in any event and may not have included Gypsies and Travellers. It points to the potentially paradoxical outcome that the uncertainty may lead to more unauthorised encampments. The all-party group commended Leeds City Council, which conducted a full assessment of needs several years ago and provided a number of new pitches, thereby saving as much as £2,000 a week on services that they would otherwise have had to provide.
Concern over the provision is widespread. The Catholic Association for Racial Justice is deeply concerned about the latest planning policy for sites which it says is making it much harder for Gypsies and Travellers to obtain planning permission to live even on their own land. It concludes:
“The impact of these … changes could be very undermining for Gypsy and Traveller communities, increasing their already serious disadvantage and marginalisation”.
The chair of the Greater London Authority housing committee, Tom Copley, wrote in December to the Minister, Brandon Lewis, reporting that his committee had written to the Mayor of London in January 2015 with five recommendations that he thought would be undermined by the Bill. The committee considered that the Gypsy and Traveller community could be further marginalised by its provisions and that its suggestions for toleration sites would be undermined by removing the requirement for assessments of need. He called on the Minister to reconsider the changes. Can the Minister say whether her honourable friend Mr Lewis did so? Did he reply to the letter—and, if so, in what terms?
At the heart of the problem is the glossary appended to the planning guidance as to the definition of Gypsies and Travellers which lists three issues, among other unspecified matters, in determining whether people are Gypsies and Travellers: namely,
“whether they previously led a nomadic habit of life … the reasons for ceasing their nomadic habit … whether there is an intention of”,
renewing it,
“how soon, and in what circumstances”—
matters which noble Lords may think are rather difficult to establish.
11.45 am
Travelling showpeople are defined separately. The Showmen’s Guild is concerned about the possible impact on its members. The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, who is not in his place, and I, are very familiar with this group, as it is integral to the Hoppings, which is Europe’s largest open-air travelling fair and which has, for 150 years, taken place on Newcastle’s Town Moor, just a few hundred yards from where I live. It originated as a temperance festival, and, though its character
may have changed slightly over the decades, it is an enormously popular event, despite the wet weather that usually coincides with it.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s briefing to the House of Commons reminds us that homelessness among Gypsies and Travellers is currently estimated at 20%, and that they are among the most disadvantaged communities in the country. The commission concluded that the Bill may be in breach of Article 8 of the ECHR, of Articles 4.2, 5 and 27 of the European Framework Convention on the Protection of Minorities, and of Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The commission also asserts that the impact assessment fails to examine the equality impact, as required by Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. We are dealing with a small but deeply deprived community, some of whose members belong to a people who—like the people I belong to—suffered very severely in the Holocaust of the Second World War. If this group is to continue to function effectively—to live the kind of life that it seeks to lead—this Bill is distinctly disturbing. If this House changes nothing, it is unnecessary; if it makes a change, it is, frankly, repugnant.
Amendments 82GD and 82GE require local housing authorities to consider the need for the provision of plots of land from which Gypsies, Travellers and travelling showpeople can have living accommodation and storage space for their equipment. I know from my own time as leader of Newcastle City Council that such provision creates concern locally and sometimes allows people with rather extreme views to stir up ill-feeling about this group. The provisions of this Bill lean towards that unfortunate development. It is not, of course, intended, but the apparent change—whether it is real or not is open to question—is not likely to help the settled relations between people in one or other of the relevant groups and the local communities in which they ought to be able to play a part. I beg to move.