Mobile homes: business and regulatory impact assessment

Consultation

The Scottish Government undertook a consultation on pitch fee uprating under the 1983 Act in spring 2023, proposing the CPI as a robust alternative to RPI, that is widely forecast and used for uprating, including of pensions and benefits. The consultation sought views to inform decisions on whether:

• it would be more appropriate for the presumption for annual increases in pitch fees to be set in line with the CPI rather than the RPI or the CPIH;
• the change should apply to agreements that are made in the future only or to both existing and future agreements; and
• it would be appropriate for Ministers to be able to update the index in future via secondary rather than primary legislation, to keep pace with developments in statistics.

The consultation ran from January to April 2023 and received 171 responses in total. Organisations accounted for 12 responses, and there were 159 from individuals, almost all of whom identified themselves as residents of mobile home sites. The consultation analysis was published in June 2023.^[10] The consultation included a question on the impact on residents and individuals, including equalities groups. 123 respondents provided an answer to the question. Some respondents did not think that there would be much or any impact on individuals from the proposed change. The most common impact mentioned in responses was reduced cost for residents and therefore a potential financial benefit, with a corresponding negative financial impact on site owners.

Of the 12 respondents that self-identified as organisations, four responses were from residents’ associations or organisations representing the interests of residents’ associations, six responses were from mobile home site operators or organisations representing their interests, and two from local authorities or organisations representing the interests of local authorities.

The majority of respondents (92%) agreed with the proposal that the CPI is the most appropriate inflationary index for pitch fee uprating for Scottish contracts under the 1983 Act. The majority of respondents who identified as residents or residents’ associations agreed with the proposal, as did respondents from local authorities. Site operators were more divided with some agreeing with the proposal and some disagreeing.

The majority of respondents (96%) thought that the proposed change in uprating from the RPI to the CPI should take effect for both existing and future contracts. Some of the small number of respondents who identified as site operators agreed and some disagreed. The main reasons given for agreeing were to promote fairness and reduce potential for confusion that might arise if two different measures were in use. A few respondents who identified as site operators disagreed with the proposal because of the potential impact on site income, in particular in light of increases in operational costs.

The majority of respondents (86%) thought that a further change should be made to the 1983 Act so that the statistical basis for uprating pitch fees can be amended by secondary legislation in the future, to keep pace with developments in statistics. Those respondents who identified as site operators were split in their views on whether secondary legislation should be used in the future, with some agreeing and some disagreeing. Some respondents who identified as residents and some site operators said that they thought the change would result in a loss of income for site operators and therefore reduce future maintenance or create a threat to site viability.

There has been somewhat limited response to the consultation by businesses. There were six responses to the consultation from site operators or those representing the interests of site operators and their views were more or less equally divided between being in favour of and being against the proposals in the consultation.

Business

During the consultation period, we sought a meeting with mobile home site operators to gather their views. We approached the British Holiday Home Parks Association (BH&HPA) as the umbrella body for park home operators. They promoted the consultation to members, but members did not see a need for a meeting to discuss the consultation. The BH&HPA responded to the consultation and supported the proposed change to CPI.

One Local Authority and the Association of Local Authority Chief Executive Officers also responded to the consultation and supported the change to CPI, while highlighting the different considerations for Local Authority rent setting.