Accommodating homeless Gypsies

Ms Codona’s extended Gypsy family occupied six caravans on land with no planning consent. When the council took enforcement action she applied as homeless, seeking an alternative site on which the whole family could be relocated. She had a cultural aversion to conventional housing.

The council arranged a B&B until it could offer a longer-term solution in adjacent houses or on a site. Codona said any bricks and mortar accommodation, including the B&B, was unsuitable. The council’s decision was upheld on review and on appeal.

The Court of Appeal dismissed a second appeal. It decided there was no absolute rule that an offer of conventional housing could not be provision of “suitable” accommodation to a Gypsy with a cultural aversion to it. The aversion was relevant, and had to be taken into account, but where land was not available or could not readily be made available, on which a Gypsy applicant could station a caravan, it was open to a council to provide bricks and mortar accommodation. The B&B was not unsuitable, but could become so if used too long before suitable long-term accommodation or a caravan site was provided.