The government has caused controversy with its plans to empower councils to clear unauthorised Gypsy and Traveller sites from next month.

Days after the conclusion of a public consultation on unauthorised sites, the government laid out its plans to allow local authorities to hand out temporary stop notices.

John Wilson of social landlord Novas, which runs sites for Gypsies and Travellers, said councils should not be able to clear these locations unless they were obliged to provide new ones.

He said: “The government needs to reintroduce a statutory duty to provide sites as well.”

The government has also rejected criticism from the ODPM select committee about the use of antisocial behaviour orders to clear sites.

Source

Housing Today