8th February 2022

 Yesterday's APPG Meeting. 7th February 2022

As park home residents, you deserve to know the outcome of any events that can affect you - and I am aware of your concerns over park home costs when everything around you is rising beyond all reasonable rates.  Of course the full official minutes of the meeting will be posted when available - but below you will find  ( asd promised ) my thoughts of the APPG meeting. 

The Minister Eddie Hughes MP was present and there was a lively Q & A (questions and answers.)  The main thrust of this came from the Chairman, Sir Christopher Chope OBE MP who verbally challenged the Minister regarding his Private Members Bill to change the current RPI (recommended price index) to CPI (consumer price index, which your pensions rise by.)

I have always maintained that if you want to get something done, you must have help from inside Westminster.  In this instance, I have to say that all park home residents should know and be grateful that Sir Christopher is doing all that he can to bring about the change from RPI to CPI on your pitch fee increase.  Along with our President, Sir Peter Bottomley MP, he came to Downing Street with us and now he is doing what the government is not and I thanked him for it on your behalf. 

 

The problem is: although the government promised you that they would implement this change (when parliamentary time allows.) In my opinion they are dragging their heels. The relevant department appears not to want to send this Bill to be included in the parliamentary time table; therefore, it has remained in limbo for four years.   To help you, Sir Christopher opted to take it forward as a Private Members Bill. 

Now you would have thought that as the government had already promised the change; Sir Christopher's Bill would have received government support on the 4th February at what was to be its second reading.  BUT NO.  The Minister at the time objected to the 2nd reading and the promised statement from the Minister Eddie Hughes MP never took place (because he was not there.)

So what was the reason for this?  When challenged by Sir Christopher at the meeting, the Minister said that the government had to discuss it further.  Although somewhat vague, It appeared that they were under the impression that we wanted the RPI to CPI difference  to be applied retrospectively.  Of course there was nothing in the Bill about it being applied retrospectively and certainly that was never mentioned in our campaign.  Sir Christopher certainly went on to labour this point. .

So where that came from is anyone's guess!!  My own impression and opinion was that the Minister did not seem to have been briefed or knew or was prepared to say too much about that or any other park home subject that was raised.  However, Sir Christopher challenged and I can confirm that Sir Christopher will present his Bill again on 25th February.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?  Well, many of you who sent our campaign letter to the Minister Michael Gove and their constituency MP have forwarded their MPs reply letter to me.  From those letters it is clear that your MPs are supporting you.  If this is the case, PLEASE WRITE TO YOUR MP BEFORE THE 25TH FEBRUARY AND ASK THEM TO INFORM SIR CHRISTOPHER  - AND THE MINISTER EDDIE HUGHES MP - OF THEIR SUPPORT FOR HIS PRIVATE MEMBERS BILL.  It would also be beneficial for you to ask your MP to represent you at the APPG for Park Homes and to call for a further meeting on this subject.  You will be able to watch the outcome of Sir Christopher's Private Members Bill on the 25th February on Parliament TV.

Following the APPG.  I wrote to Sir Christopher with my thoughts of how we can progress things.  If it develops, I will let you know.

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The Minister stated that the independent review report had been received from the University in January and they were looking at it.  He gave no indication of when or what the outcome would be.

FIT AND PROPER

We heard from "The work of the Site Licencing Forum" regarding Fit and Proper Person Licencing.  I believe that forum consists of Local Authority members and Trading Standards.  On behalf of the PHPF I asked "with whom the Secretary of State consulted, because it was believed that it did not consult with park home residents - who are the most affected.  If this was the case, I asked why were residents not consulted and were any other organisations or persons consulted - if so, who were they.

The LA spokesperson appeared to indicate that neither the residents or industry were involved.  Later I was informed by the civil servant in the department that consultations had taken place in 2017, 2018, 2019.  I was not aware of a specific consultation on Fit and Proper, only consultations on a much broader basis.

I can not speak for others but I told the meeting that residents campaigned for F & P to remove the criminal and bullying site owners from impacting the residents lives - and that we now have a system whereby criminal and rogue site owners can legally employ a manager or a family member to be the F & P Person.  Therefore, there are no changes to park problems and the site owner continues to control.  If the appointed F & P person should be taken to task and loses his licence, it is of no consequence as the site owner can then apply to give someone else the licence which allows the criminal or rogue to continue to harass and bully. 

Then: to add insult to injury, site owners are legally allowed to pass on the cost of their F & P licence (which is a business cost) to the residents and this is added to the residents pitch fee to be increased annually by the inflation index.  I said that residents feel that F & P is not worth the paper it is written on.  It does not stop criminals from owning a site or controlling residents.  All it does is add a further cost to the helpless resident.  

IN ANY OTHER BUSINESS  I asked about the Electricity Price increased and the promised rebate to help as electricity prices sore.

I explained that in many cases, the bill for the electricity does not go directly to the park home owner - but to the site owner.  I asked how the rebate due to the residents will be addressed by those site owners who re-sell electricity to the home owners and what will the government put in place to ensure that those to whom it is intended - get it and that it is not pocketed by rogue site owners.

I was asked by the Department to let them know how the repayment of electricity rebates will most probably affect park home residents when they make their deliberations.  I wrote to the department as soon as the APPG meeting was over.

Others had input, but I can not report on that.  All will be available when the minutes are released - but as promised, I have covered what I can and I hope it makes things a little clearer.

Ends.

In my opinion, there are too many subjects on the rights and wrongs of park home living that need to be addressed.  I do not think it is possible to do this in an hour's APPG meeting.  Each individual topic needs hours of debate between all sides if we are to get proper changes.  I believe that in addition to the present APPG, we need to structure an All Party Parliamentary ACTION Group for park homes that meets (by ZOOM) at least once a month.  It needs to address one topic at a time and then take appropriate ACTION to bring it to fruition.  I did not say this last paragraph at the APPG Meeting.  But I have sent a copy of this email to our President Sir Peter Bottomley MP and the APPG Chairman, Sir Christopher Chope OBE MP.

Best Wishes to all

Sonia