Anneliese Dodds, Labour's parliamentary spokesperson for Reading East, today welcomed new protections for park and mobile home residents. This follows lobbying by Anneliese of both the Department of Communities and Local Government and Lord Graham of Edmonton, Secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Mobile Homes, after uncovering some very unsavoury practices operated by some site owners, including imposing unwarranted charges.
 
The new measures enable park and mobile home residents to easily challenge site owners/managers on issues like pitch fee increases. In the past, residents would have had to take costly and complicated legal action to prevent fee hikes.
 
The new system gives residents access to Residential Property Tribunals, so they don't have to go through county courts. In addition, park home residents and other interested parties are currently being consulted on improvements to site licensing (the consultation ends in August of this year).
 
Anneliese said: "While many site owners do the best they can to run their mobile or park home sites well, some unscrupulous operators have been ripping off residents for far too long.
 
Many park home residents are elderly or vulnerable people, who can be intimidated by dishonest, exploitative or incompetent site owners.
 
I'm really pleased to see that the Government is taking action on this, and will be participating in the consultation to ensure that the interests of park home owners in Reading East and beyond are taken seriously". 
 
Full details of the consultation can be found at the following Government website: www.communities.gov.uk/housing/buyingselling/parkmobile/