Having Somewhere to Live: Unauthorised Encampments and Local Authority Site Provision

In the most recent government figures (2015), 20,123 caravans were counted by local authorities in England. Of those, 2,671 were camped in an unauthorised manner. This would indicate that many Gypsies and Travellers have nowhere legal to stop and consequently will be under threat of eviction, as only 87% were on legal sites. However, these figures are widely recognised as being inaccurate and are believed to be considerably lower with a more accurate figure being closer to a third of the community rather than a quarter.

Read more about Government “Traveller Counts” here.

Many authorised sites are facing partial or complete closure. Since the incorporation of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, there is no longer any statutory duty on local authorities to provide sites. As a consequence, very few new sites are now being built to meet this drastic decline in provision.