Rayleigh and Wickford’s MP Mark Francois has today welcomed the Government’s announcement that owners of Park Homes will be given new rights to go to a Residential Property Tribunal if they feel they are being unfairly dealt with by their site owners.
The Rayleigh and Wickford area has a number of Park Home sites, for instance in the Hockley and Hullbridge area, that provide affordable and high quality homes to people often of retirement age. Although many Park Home sites are well run, Park Home residents have in the past had problems getting permission from their site owners to sell their homes or replace or upgrade their homes at a reasonable fee. They have also had disputes over the levels of charges which have in extreme cases led to them being intimidated by the site owners.
Mark, who is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Park Home (Owners) Group, has campaigned to give Park Home residents better rights for a number of years, most recently writing to fellow Essex MP Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and local Government shortly after the election in order to urge the Coalition to make quick progress. The responsible Minister Grant Shapps MP wrote back to Mark to stress that the new government wished to act quickly to clarify a complex situation.
Speaking about the announcement, Mark Francois said:
""I am delighted that the Government plans to bring in the right for Park Home residents to go to a special tribunal in order to help resolve disputes they may have with their site owners.
Although most park home site owners are reasonable people there is a minority who have been exploiting their residents. It is for this reason that I have been pressing Ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government to take action. I hope that this new right will now help to quickly resolve existing disputes and give a fair deal to both the residents and site owners.”
