By Steve Gilbert MP - 10th January 2012
Steve Gilbert MP says park homes are an important part of the housing mix and meet a real need – and the regulatory regime must properly look after park home residents.
Park Homes are modern, bungalow-style residential properties usually sited on private estates. The park home industry is a billion pound business. There are over two thousand park home sites within the UK, primarily but not exclusively centred in rural areas like Cornwall.
For the vast majority of the quarter of a million residents who reside on park home sites, their park home constitutes their only home. Most residents are elderly and many are vulnerable, with many park homes sites setting a minimum 'near' retirement age as a condition of residence. The industry heavily markets itself towards 'property rich – cash poor' senior citizens. The advertising paints a picture of like minded individuals forming small idyllic communities in which they will live out their twilight years in comfort and contentment, made all the better by the equity release that “upgrading to a park home” brings about. And for many this dream is a reality, but for a significant number the dream can turn into nightmare.
At the moment anyone can own a park home site, and as things currently stand a long criminal history or prior evidence of malpractice within the industry is no barrier to an individual buying and running a site. Unscrupulous site owners can make a quick profit by getting people to sell their homes at much less than they are worth and can bully, harass, intimidate residents into doing this. A recent survey found that 63 per cent of park home residents reported living under unacceptable conditions and 48 per cent reporting living under the regime of an unscrupulous park owner.
The last government promised to act and so has the Coalition, but so far we've seen little movement. In the absence of government action, the 10 Minute Rule Bill proposes a two-stage process to better regulate this industry: local authorities would be responsible for issuing the "site licence" and monitoring it, which would cover such matters as the site’s suitability, amenities and services and a national licensing body would ensure site owners are "fit and proper".
The national "fit and proper person" test would mean that bad behaviour by site owners in one place would bar them from owning a park home anywhere.
Park homes are an important part of the housing mix and meet a real need – we need to make sure though that the regulatory regime properly looks after park home residents.
Steve Gilbert has been Lib Dem MP for St Austell and Newquay since 2010.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd