7. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Regeneration: Changes to the Park Homes Commission Rate

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:36 pm on 5 June 2018.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 6:36, 5 June 2018

Great. Thank you very much for those comments. Again, I know that we've met to discuss the concerns that you've heard from residents in Mid and West Wales, both from the perspective of the people who are park home owners, but also from the perspective of the people who own the sites as well. So, you've certainly, I know, heard both sides of the argument and recognised, as I do, that there isn't any point really at which those views will come together. Overall, there is that clear and consistent divide. Most residents, of course, as you can imagine, would support the reduction or abolition of the fee, whereas all of the site owners who contributed to our consultation wanted to see the site fee maintained or the commission rate maintained at 10 per cent. So, there is that divide.

You're absolutely right that it has been some time now since the start of the implementation of the 2013 Act, and I do think that now is the time to be having those conversations with local authorities and others to understand really, in terms of monitoring and the implementation of the Act, what more can be done to ensure that people in park homes are getting the fair deal that they expect, and are being treated with respect and being treated with fairness by the people who own those park home sites as well. So, this is something that officials have already started their engagement on with local authorities who have been doing that, but certainly some of the experiences that we've heard through our consultation process do certainly make me think that actually, on some sites, people are not getting the kind of service that they deserve. That issue of how efficiently the fit-and-proper-person test is working for people needs to be something that we should be exploring in greater depth, and we'll certainly be doing that.

In terms of the costs for tribunal, I was desperately trying to put my hands on the table that includes all of those costs, which depend on the number of parties involved, but I will certainly write to you with the detail of that.