Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to enhance councils' enforcement powers and penalties to stop unauthorised traveller development taking place on (a) weekends and (b) bank holiday weekends.

The government is committed to tackling all types of unauthorised development and recently strengthened policy on intentional unauthorised development to ensure that decision makers give this significant weight when considering applications for retrospective applications and enforcement appeals.

Local planning authorities already have strong enforcement tools to enforce against breaches of planning control. These include the issuing of temporary stop notices requiring development to cease while the local planning authority considers whether further enforcement action is required; the issuing of enforcement notices to require breaches of planning control to be remedied; and the issuing of stop notices to require that the development ceases immediately.

The penalty for non-compliance with any of these enforcement actions is an unlimited fine on conviction.

Local planning authorities can also apply for planning injunctions against actual or apprehended breaches of planning control. Failure to comply with an injunction is contempt of court.

We continue to keep the matter of unauthorised development under review and are considering further action in this area.