Mobile Homes Act 2013

Lord McKenzie of Luton Excerpts

Monday 21st July 2014 Grand Committee

[Lord McKenzie of Luton (Lab)]

My Lords, we should be grateful to my noble friend Lord Graham of Edmonton for causing us to keep a focus on mobile or park homes following the passing of the Mobile Homes Act 2013. As we know, and for which we admire him, my noble friend has been a long-standing campaigner for the rights of park home residents. He could be forgiven for signing off and putting his feet up with a job well done now that the legislation is passed, but it is not in his nature to stop campaigning and to give up on the cause. I acknowledge also that the Act was expertly steered through your Lordships’ House by the noble Lord, Lord Best, who is a housing expert to boot, and who had the support of the Government and from all Benches in this House.

However, my noble friend’s Question is a reminder of the nature of our role in such matters. The job is not done just by passing the Act or, indeed, by Ministers securing any necessary funding. It is about seeking to ensure that the legislation is delivering as expected. Of course what spurred this legislation in the first place were the serious abuses in the sector, the victims of which are mostly elderly—“frightened” was the word used by my noble friend and the noble Lord, Lord Best—people. There was also the powerful testament to these abuses not only from the organisations representing the victims but from Members of the Commons and several noble Lords, including the noble Lords, Lord Cormack and Lord Best, the noble Baroness, Lady Scott of Needham market, and my noble friends Lord Whitty and Lord Graham.

The purpose of the legislation was to stop those abuses, giving reassurance and justice to those 85,000 households for whom these sites were intended to be their homes. The legislation was also to create and sustain a level playing field for good site owners and operators, preventing them facing unfair competition from unscrupulous ones. What has happened so far?

Sections 1 to 7 of the Act were brought into force only on 1 April this year, a year after the Act was passed. This date marked the end of the Government’s moratorium on new burdens for micro-businesses. What benefit does the Minister think was gained by the deferred implementation of those provisions? Inevitably this means that there has been very limited opportunity to see how some of the provisions are working in practice. But so far as the licensing role in Section 1 is concerned, is there any indication of the level of fees local authorities are charging and whether they have sought to increase their capacity to undertake their role effectively? Will the Minister say how many authorities in England have “relevant protected sites” within their boundaries?

One of the major bones of contention of the past has been circumstances where site owners have tried to block home owners selling or gifting their property. Section 10 prevents this happening in different ways depending on whether the home is subject to a new or existing agreement. This section has been in force for more than a year and has presumably been tested in practice, certainly with regard to existing agreements. Will the Minister tell us whether any problems have yet arisen from its application and whether site owners are seeking to circumvent or have circumvented its intent?

As the noble Lord, Lord Best, said, we have had no movement on the introduction of a fit and proper person test for site owners and operators. That was a major concern when we debated the Bill and when it was introduced in another place. Such a test was recommended by the CLG Select Committee and strongly backed by the Park Home Owners Justice Campaign. If we had that fit and proper person test, it would address some of the real issues that are still going on in the sector, as we have heard from my noble friend.

Section 8 includes a power to introduce a fit and proper person test but this power has not yet been used. In replying to the Second Reading debate, the then Minister, the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, explained that it was not,

“the Government’s intention to impose an industry-wide fit and proper requirement at present. New burdens on business are always a last resort”.

However, she went on to say that,

“we will be reviewing the situation after a suitable period—I hope that would be shorter rather than longer—to see how behaviour in the industry has changed”.—[Official Report, 1/2/13; col. 1814.]

Will the Minister confirm that “shorter rather than longer” accords with his view and say what plans there are to review the situation? Must we wait until 2017, as the noble Lord, Lord Best, suggested? What sort of new burden would be unreasonable to impose on someone who was not a fit and proper person in those circumstances?

In that debate, the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, also responded to points raised by the noble Lord, Lord Best, concerning energy efficiency and fuel poverty. The noble Lord has raised the issue of LPG profiteering again today. Concerns were similarly expressed at the time by Consumer Focus. In particular, there was the suggestion that the standard assessment of energy performance used for the Green Deal was inapplicable to park homes. There were added complications about single metering arrangements on some sites. The noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, indicated that the matter had the attention of the Prime Minister, no less, and that work was under way with DECC officials to see what might be done to improve the position. Will the Minister give us an update on progress?

Noble Lords will doubtless also be aware of the recent Westminster Hall debate initiated by Annette Brooke MP, which focused on the perceived inequity of the commission—up to 10% of the sale price of the pitch—payable to site owners. I raise this point not because we consider that there should necessarily be changes to those arrangements at this stage, although the issue of basis on which they are levied, raised by the noble Lord, Lord Best, seems worthy of review; we acknowledge that the mechanics of the payment are changing—but because it was an obvious opportunity for any perceived failings of the 2013 Act to be aired, and none was.

Two residual questions flow from this. How confident is the Minister that the fundamental changes that the Act brings about are being effectively communicated within the sector, and what more is planned? The legislation was intended to prevent unscrupulous behaviour of site owners and managers, who hitherto have harassed, ill treated and made life intolerable for too many vulnerable people. What arrangements are in hand for the routine monitoring of the legislation’s effect and what early warning systems are in place to identify avoidance of its rigours? As we have heard from my noble friend Lord Graham, these abuses are still going on despite the Act, and we have a concentration of ownership that is deeply worrying.

The efforts of my noble friend over so many years have been the major factor in bringing significant improvement to the lives of thousands of people. We owe it to him to make sure that this legislation stands the test of time, just as my noble friend’s persistence and commitment have endured.