Assessing local housing authorities’ progress in meeting the accommodation needs of Gypsy and Traveller communities in England: Research report: 13

Philip Brown, Pat Niner

Research output: Book/ReportCommissioned report

Abstract

In 2006 the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) concluded that Gypsies and Irish Travellers are the most excluded groups in Britain today. Advances in social mobility and access to power made by other disadvantaged groups in Britain, such as other ethnic minority groups, have simply not been matched by Gypsies and Travellers. There is a recognised national shortfall in Gypsy and Traveller site pitches (the prime form of culturally appropriate accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers in England – a pitch refers to the land required for one household). In order to address this, the Housing Act 2004 requires local housing authorities to carry out assessments of the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers. Those assessments must identify the extent of requirements and inform the development of long-term strategies to meet accommodation needs. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) Circular 01/2006 Planning for Gypsy and Traveller Caravan Sites, set out the new approach to needs-based planning to facilitate additional site provision to meet current shortfalls. The purpose of this research was to take stock of the extent of accommodation provision since the publication of the CRE report, Common Ground: Equality, good race relations and sites for Gypsies and Irish Travellers and Circular 01/2006.

The research used the following approaches to gather relevant information to indicate progress towards pitch provision:

• An analysis of all available Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessments and other documents indicating the number of pitches required for local authorities
• An analysis of the 2006-08 Caravan Count data
• A detailed questionnaire was sent to all 354 local authorities in England, resulting in 185 responses.
Original languageEnglish
PublisherEquality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
Commissioning bodyEquality and Human Rights Commission
Number of pages105
ISBN (Print)9781842060957
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2009
Externally publishedYes

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