Review of housing needs for caravans and houseboats
Section 8 of the Housing Act 1985 paces a statutory requirement on local housing authorities to carry out a periodical review of housing needs to assess and understand the needs of people residing or resorting to their district.
Clause 115 of the Housing and Planning Bill 2015 includes a new duty to consider the needs of people residing in or resorting to a district with respect to sites for caravans and the mooring of houseboats.
On 11 March 2016, the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) published Review of housing needs for caravans and houseboats: draft guidance. This is a response to Clause 115 and provides draft guidance for English local housing authorities on the periodical review of housing needs for caravans and houseboats.
The draft guidance provides advice on how to consider these needs where they differ from those of the settled community. This, it suggests, will help local authorities make properly planned provision, avoid problems associated with ad-hoc or unauthorised provision, and strengthen their ability to respond to inappropriate unauthorised developments and encampments.
It provides guidance on:
- Assessing the need for caravans and houseboats.
- Carrying out an accommodation needs assessment.
- Making use of the accommodation needs assessment.
- How to use the outcome of the assessment.
During a discussion about the Housing and Planning Bill at the House of Lords on 17 March 2016, The Bishop of St Albans welcomed the guidance, but suggested it had been rushed out without proper consultation, adding:
“I know that there are a number of concerns about the proposed guidance, not least the failure to define what is meant by a household —something which has led to a great deal of confusion and cross-authority discrepancies in the past, as authorities have defined it in different ways.”
He went on to criticise the lack of mention of gypsy and traveller communities and the use of simple categories of caravans and inland waterways which fail to capture the nuanced differences in the needs of the groups for which this legislation is intended.
[edit] Find out more
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki
Featured articles and news
The context, schemes, standards, roles and relevance of the Building Safety Act.
Retrofit 25 – What's Stopping Us?
Exhibition Opens at The Building Centre.
Types of work to existing buildings
A simple circular economy wiki breakdown with further links.
A threat to the creativity that makes London special.
How can digital twins boost profitability within construction?
The smart construction dashboard, as-built data and site changes forming an accurate digital twin.
Unlocking surplus public defence land and more to speed up the delivery of housing.
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill
An outline of the bill with a mix of reactions on potential impacts from IHBC, CIEEM, CIC, ACE and EIC.
Farnborough College Unveils its Half-house for Sustainable Construction Training.
Spring Statement 2025 with reactions from industry
Confirming previously announced funding, and welfare changes amid adjusted growth forecast.
Scottish Government responds to Grenfell report
As fund for unsafe cladding assessments is launched.
CLC and BSR process map for HRB approvals
One of the initial outputs of their weekly BSR meetings.
Architects Academy at an insulation manufacturing facility
Programme of technical engagement for aspiring designers.
Building Safety Levy technical consultation response
Details of the planned levy now due in 2026.
Great British Energy install solar on school and NHS sites
200 schools and 200 NHS sites to get solar systems, as first project of the newly formed government initiative.
600 million for 60,000 more skilled construction workers
Announced by Treasury ahead of the Spring Statement.
The restoration of the novelist’s birthplace in Eastwood.
Life Critical Fire Safety External Wall System LCFS EWS
Breaking down what is meant by this now often used term.
PAC report on the Remediation of Dangerous Cladding
Recommendations on workforce, transparency, support, insurance, funding, fraud and mismanagement.
New towns, expanded settlements and housing delivery
Modular inquiry asks if new towns and expanded settlements are an effective means of delivering housing.