Proud Gypsy Traveller CIC welcomes important elements of the new National Planning Policy Framework and, in particular, a greater recognition that the shortage of lawful Gypsy and Traveller accommodation cannot be solved through enforcement alone.

Earlier this year, PGT responded to the NPPF consultation drawing directly on our planning advocacy, welfare reporting and work alongside Ethnic Gypsy and Traveller families.

Our evidence was clear: when there are simply not enough authorised sites, retrospective planning applications and unauthorised development do not happen in a vacuum. Families can find themselves trying to secure a stable home on land they own because the planning system has failed to provide them with a realistic lawful alternative.

We also warned that requiring Gypsy and Traveller sites to be closely related to existing settlements could make new provision practically impossible, particularly for small family sites where affordable and appropriate land is often found in rural locations.

We are therefore encouraged that the final framework explicitly recognises that locations not well-related to existing settlements may be appropriate for Traveller sites, while still requiring proper consideration of access to education, health and welfare services.

This is not, as some of the political commentary might suggest, a relaxation of planning law which allows Gypsy and Traveller families to do whatever they want.

The new framework actually strengthens national policy on intentional unauthorised development, requiring substantial weight to be given to that fact when retrospective applications are considered. Traveller developments remain subject to the wider planning framework, including environmental, flooding, transport and other protections.

But enforcement cannot be the whole answer.

A planning system cannot punish its way out of an accommodation shortage.

For too long, the national conversation has started at the point of enforcement rather than asking what happened before it.

Was local need properly assessed?

Were sufficient sites identified?

Were those sites actually deliverable and habitable?

Was there somewhere lawful this family could reasonably have gone?

And did the planning system provide a genuine route through which they could meet their family’s cultural, health, welfare and educational needs?

Those are questions PGT asks every day through our work.

We want to work constructively with any Government that is prepared to address these problems proactively rather than simply punitively: identifying need, planning for lawful sites and creating realistic routes to culturally appropriate accommodation before families reach crisis point.

That is not about being “soft” on unauthorised development. It is about solving the problem rather than repeatedly managing its consequences.

There is a particularly uncomfortable tone emerging in some of the response to these changes, where lawful Gypsy and Traveller site provision, retrospective planning applications and unauthorised encampments are being blurred together into a single narrative.

They are not the same thing.

A Gypsy or Traveller family seeking somewhere lawful and stable to live is not asking to be above planning law. They are asking for a planning system in which complying with the law is realistically possible.

We also recognise that this new framework does not resolve everything PGT raised in our consultation response. We remain particularly interested in how the strengthened policy on intentional unauthorised development will be applied where there is clear evidence that a family had no realistic authorised accommodation available. Our evidence repeatedly shows why health, children’s education, safeguarding, disability and the availability of alternative sites matter when individual circumstances are considered.

But there is an important principle here which should not be lost amongst the political noise.

Provision and enforcement have to sit together.

If government expects Gypsy and Traveller families to use lawful routes to secure their homes, then national and local government must ensure those lawful routes genuinely exist.

PGT is independent of party politics. We will work constructively with any government, local authority or public body willing to listen to evidence, engage directly with Gypsy and Traveller communities and look for practical solutions.

Because ultimately the measure of this policy will not be tomorrow’s headlines.

It will be whether, five years from now, fewer families are being pushed into crisis because councils have properly assessed need, identified deliverable sites and provided a fair route to a lawful, safe and culturally appropriate home.