Draft guidance for managing Gypsy and Traveller sites - Chapter 4: applications and allocations

Application forms for local authority pitches should be available from the local authority housing office as well as from the manager of any local authority site. Forms should be clear and easy to understand and complete.

Applicant meetings with the site manager should be the initial point of contact. Application forms should be completed by the applicant where practicable, but where literacy barriers exist, the site manager should explain the details of the form and the terms of a mobile home agreement on site verbally. The site manage must ensure that an applicant fully understands and agrees with the terms of a mobile home agreement before it is entered into by them.

Applicants should be assured that all information submitted on an application form will be treated in confidence and in compliance with data protection legislation.

Applicants should be made aware that pitch allocations are dependent on several factors which may include:

Capacity

• Pitch turnover and vacancies on local authority sites are typically low. As a result, most sites are at full capacity, which may mean that applicants will need to spend some time on a waiting list.

Fees

• Local authorities will need to be satisfied that applicants are likely to pay their pitch fee and other fees that are due.

Proof of Identity

• All attempts should be made to secure some form of proof of identity from an applicant who wishes to enter into a mobile home agreement on a local authority site.
• This can be in the form of a passport, driving licence, birth certificate, utility bill or receipts from the previous site occupied by them. Where ‘photo id’ is not available, a letter and a photograph signed by a professional associate (for example, a teacher or GP) may be accepted to verify the identity of the individual. Where an applicant is unable to provide these, the site manager may seek some form of identity verification from other family members who may be residing on the site.
• Where an existing member of a local authority site wishes to assign their pitch to a family member, proof of family connections will be required.

Applications for a local authority pitch should be sent to the local authority housing office. Office hours should be made known to residents by the site manager and will often be available on the local authority website.

Application forms will be considered in accordance with the local authorities’ pitch allocation policy. This will include consideration of the needs of the applicant and their families, which should have already been identified in the local authorities Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Assessments (GTAA). The local authority should not make a final decision on any application until they have consulted with the site manager.

Applications for a local authority pitch should not require the applicant to indicate an estimated length of stay and all successful applications should be considered as being valid for as long as the site has planning permission. Where an application is made for a transit pitch, the local authority may ask the applicant for an estimated length of stay as occupiers are permitted to stay on transit pitches for a maximum period of 3 months.

The local authority should consider applications for a pitch at a local authority site within a reasonable timescale, and within 28 days of receipt of the application wherever possible. Undue delays could place applicants at risk of homelessness or forced to occupy an unauthorised encampment due to the lack of a legal alternative. Applicants should be informed of the expected timescale for their application to be decided.

If an application is unsuccessful, the reasons for this should be clearly explained to the applicant as soon as is practicable. The applicant should be made aware of the right to ask for a review of the decision and the appeals process, both as part of the written decision and verbally.

Applicants should also be advised that an initial refusal will not prevent them from applying again in the future. All unsuccessful applicants should be referred back to the local authorities housing department who must help them to secure alternative accommodation if they are homeless or at risk of homelessness.

Where possible, vacant transit pitches should be temporarily allocated to applicants whilst they are waiting a decision on their application for a permanent residential pitch. However, any applicants who may be allocated a transit pitch under these arrangements must not be permitted to stay on the pitch for more than three months.

Where an applicant has family links with existing members of a local authority l site, the local authority may consider allowing the applicant to temporarily occupy the site where there is sufficient capacity to safely accommodate them. Before making a decision to allow this, the local authority must first obtain the views of the existing residents. The cohesion and harmony of the site as a whole and the wellbeing of existing residents must be taken into account before a final decision is made.

Local authorities may decide that applicants do not need to complete a full application process for a pitch on a transit site. Instead, they may ask for only satisfactory references and the first week of fees before allowing an applicant to occupy a vacant transit pitch.

Managers of transit sites should build relationships with managers of other transit and local authority sites to ensure vacant pitches are well publicised to those who may need to occupy them.

It is strongly recommended that local authorities publish their policies and procedures for allocating local authority pitches, including how to apply, how applications will be assessed, details of how priority need is considered and expected timescales for a decision to be made.

Local authorities are expected to have a clear and accessible waiting list policy for those who want a pitch within their area.

Where a waiting list is in operation, the local authority should clearly explain how the list operates and inform applicants of their general position on the list when requested. Inevitably, where applicants’ circumstances change or new applicants move into the area with priority need where a mobile home pitch is considered to be suitable accommodation (as set out below), the specific order of the waiting list is likely to change. However, local authorities should be able to provide broad feedback to applicants about the expected waiting time.

The waiting list policy should include details of eligibility for a local authority pitch. Waiting lists which allow for the specific recording of the need for an authorised pitch are recommended under the Gypsy and Traveller accommodation assessments guidance. As with other forms of social housing, priority for a local authority pitch should be given to those in greatest need and with no alternative pitch accommodation. The criteria for assessing the needs of applicants and the procedure for allocation should be clearly explained and transparent to prevent concerns about misallocation.

Local authorities have specific duties to help applicants who are homeless or at risk of homelessness under the Housing (Wales) Act 2014. A person is homeless under that Act if they have accommodation, but it consists of a moveable structure or vehicle designed or adapted for human habitation and there is no place where the person is entitled or permitted both to place it and to reside in it. A person is threatened with homelessness if it is likely that the person will become homeless within 56 days.

Local authorities must:

• help to prevent applicants who are threatened with homelessness from becoming homeless
• secure interim accommodation for eligible applicants in priority need
• help to secure that suitable accommodation is available for occupation by homeless applicants who are eligible for help
• secure accommodation for applicants in priority need when the duty to secure interim accommodation comes to an end

Section 70 of The Housing Wales Act (2014) describes the following as persons who have a priority need (together with anyone they might reasonably be expected to reside with):

• pregnant women
• those with dependent children living with them
• vulnerable people for some special reason (for example, elderly or disabled people or those with physical or mental illness)
• those who have been made homeless or threatened with homelessness as a result of an emergency
• those who have been made homeless as a result of domestic abuse
• those who are 16 or 17
• those that have reached 18 (but under 21) years of age and need help obtaining accommodation after exiting social care
• those who have reached 18 (but under 21) years of age who are at particular risk of sexual or financial exploitation
• those who have been homeless since leaving the regular armed forces of the Crown
• a person who has a local connection to the area of the local housing authority and who is vulnerable as a result of incarceration

Local authorities may also wish to consider additional assessment criteria for local authority pitches.For example, consideration may additionally be given to:

• those currently occupying overcrowded or unsanitary conditions on existing local authority sites
• those currently occupying an unauthorised encampment who wish to move onto a local authority site.
• those with a recognised cultural aversion to conventional housing
• those seeking to move to support elderly and disabled relatives living on a local authority site

Due consideration may also be given to family groups and the wider implications of an application on their family life.

It is good practice for local authorities to consult on their allocation and waiting list policies to ensure that the process and procedure for determining applications, allocations and priority need is clear, transparent and fit-for-purpose.

The local authority is also recommended to review the allocation and waiting list policies from time to time to ensure they remain fit-for-purpose.

Where possible applicants should be given a pitch that best suits their requirements.

The Equality Act 2010 (‘the 2010 Act’) provides disabled people with protection from discrimination in relation to their housing and applies to the way in which a local authority treats homeless applicants and allocates their housing stock. Local authorities must make reasonable adjustments for disabled people and cannot discriminate against disabled people in the management of their housing.

The local authority must make reasonable adjustments to both pitches and amenity blocks to enable them to be suitable for an applicant with a disability.

Local authorities may use the Disabled Facilities Grant to ensure that pitches and amenity blocks are made to be accessible.

Existing residents on local authority pitches may assign their pitch agreement to a member of their family or exchange their pitch with another occupant on a local authority site. Paragraphs 41 and 42 of Schedule 2 to the Mobile Homes (Wales) Act 2013 set out the circumstances when this should be permitted and the obligations of residents and site owners.

To assign a pitch, the residents must have the approval of the local authority. In the case of an exchange, the proposed new resident must already live on a local authority owned pitch in the same local authority area.

Neither the resident nor the local authority (including the site manager) is able to ask for any payment for agreeing to any assignment.

The resident who wishes to assign their agreement to another person must give the local authority a request for approval. The request must include evidence that the proposed new resident is a member of their family or, in the case of an exchange, evidence of an agreement between the two sets of residents.

The local authority must respond to the request within 28 days of receipt and must approve the request unless it is reasonable for them to refuse. The local authority must give the person who made the request a notice of their decision, and if approval is not given to assign the agreement, the notice must explain the reasons why.

When the day-to-day site management of a local authority site is contracted out to a management organisation, the responsibility for approving assignment requests remains with the local authority. If the site manager of a management organisation received an assignment request from a resident, they must pass this onto the local authority as soon as practicable.

The local authority can approve an assignment even where fees are due from the outgoing resident, or a term of the agreement has been breached by them. However, the approval of the assignment can be made conditional on the outdoing resident paying all outstanding fees any resolving any breaches of their mobile home agreement (where practicable) before they leave. The local authority cannot make the approval of an assignment subject to any other conditions.

If the persons who made the assignment request does not receive a decision notice from the local authority or their request is refused, they may appeal to a Residential Property Tribunal (RPT). An application to the RPT must be made within three months of receiving the decision notice, or, where no decision notice was provided by the local authority, within three months and 29 days of the date the assignment request was made.

Where a mobile home agreement holder dies, any person living with them in the mobile home at the time is entitled to succeed them on the pitch. This includes the widow, widower, surviving partner or any member of the deceased’s family (as defined under section 55(3) of the 2013 Act).

Where the pitch agreement holder was living alone at the time of their death, the successor will be the person entitled to inherit the deceased’s estate under terms of any will or, where there is no will, under the laws of intestacy. The person who inherits the mobile home is able to sell it and pass on the full mobile home agreement to the buyer, provided the local authority agrees. The person who inherits the mobile home may also live there or give it to a member of their family, with the agreement of the local authority.

Occupiers of transit pitches do not have the right to request any assignment of their pitch and, in the event of their death whilst occupying a transit pitch, their beneficiaries do not have any succession rights.