Gypsies and Travellers

Lord McKenzie of Luton Excerpts

Tuesday 6th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, the noble Lord makes an important and interesting point. It is much easier to have an unauthorised encampment removed if the local authority has already made appropriate provision.

[Lord McKenzie of Luton]

My Lords, as the Minister has acknowledged, there is a shortage of adequate permanent and transit sites for Gypsies and Travellers, but, at the same time, the Government are dismantling regional spatial strategies, one of the objectives of which was to set targets concerning the number of pitches that each local authority should provide. What evidence do the Government have which suggests that the replacement duty to co-operate will better encourage local authorities to meet their own and their neighbours’ responsibilities?

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, as I have said, we have not seen the full government policy because that will be announced shortly. The previous Government’s model of top-down pitch targets under regional strategies has not delivered. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of caravans on unauthorised developments increased from 728 to 3,895.