Park Home afficionados will know that the legislation governing park home living is based on the Mobile Homes Act 1984 and subsequent amendments through various Housing Acts. The advent of a Scottish Parliament devolved any further changes for Scotland, from Westminster to Edinburgh under Housing or other legislation.
While significant changes to Mobile Home legislation were made in England and Wales in 2006, the Scottish amendments were restricted to a few basic changes, to allow the Parliament to take close scrutiny of the whole matter of park and mobile home living in Scotland. To the Scottish Government's credit, they set up research headed by the University of York producing a comprehensive picture of the industry in Scotland. (Access the research results online at the link below)
In 2008, on publication of the research, the Scottish Government consulted with interested parties on the findings of the research. Willow Wood representatives were fully included in the consultations. Willow Wood's Mike Larkman made a number of strong points and hopes were high for early progress in amending legislation. Since then however, matters have ground to a halt leaving the Scottish legislation far behind England and Wales rather than ahead, as previously anticipated. For example, in Scotland, there is no legislation to enforce recognition of Residents Associations which followers of this site will recognise as an issue in other news items.
Willow Wood is now pushing ahead for strong amending legislation. With the help of our ever-attentive Member of the Scottish Parliament, Angela Constance (SNP Livingston) Mike Larkman is seeking a meeting with the Scottish Housing Minister, Alex Neill MSP, and has extended an invitation (through Angela) to Mr Neill to visit Willow Wood and to discuss the various issues which require attention ar Scottish Government level. We are hopeful of an early meeting with the Minister and his officials.
