Park Home Owners

Andrew Pakes Excerpts

Tuesday 28th April 2026 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Pakes (Peterborough) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a privilege to speak in this debate and to represent park home owners in my constituency, and to follow the passionate call for action from my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish). It is genuinely touching to see that we have a cross-party consensus between many in this House on the need for justice for our park home residents.

Problems relating to park homes have been a constant and worrying part of my casework since I was elected. I regularly speak to residents who are frustrated and angry that their security—the security of having a home—is at risk because of the power imbalance between park home owners and site owners. It is not an exaggeration to talk about park home justice.

I pay tribute to park home campaigners in my constituency. I asked them yesterday if I could put some of their names on record, because they are great tribunes there, but they did not feel that it would be appropriate or right for me to name them because of the relationship with their site owners. However, I would like to give a shout-out to two councillors in my patch, Shabina Qayyum and Samantha Hemraj, who have consistently fought on the side of park home owners for longer than I have and who brought me up to speed on these issues.

This debate speaks not just to individual cases of people falling through the gaps or a blip, but to a systemic failure in the law, regulation and enforcement of decent standards for park home residents. The reality is stark. Like other speakers, I highlight the predatory nature of the relationships. Many residents feel that site owners prey on relatives of homeowners who die by buying up their homes cheaply and selling them on at a huge profit. In one part of Peterborough, a home that was recently bought for £25,000 was sold a few weeks later, when the homeowner died before Christmas, for £85,000. That is in addition to the rank injustice of the 10% commission that site owners make on all their sales.

The bigger issue is that, in too many cases, the state is blind to residents’ frustrations and too weak to deal with the injustices they face. Too often, maintenance is poor, despite increasing charges and fees being passed on to park home residents, and local authority enforcement is often weak.

[Samantha Niblett]

A constituent of mine, Marion Webster, is a keen supporter of the Park Home Owners Justice Campaign. Like my hon. Friend’s constituents, she feels that it is incredibly unjust that, if she wants to sell her home, she has to give 10% away. That almost puts fleecehold and leasehold to shame by comparison. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is time for the Government to take action on the back of this debate, which I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) for securing?

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Pakes]

My hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe described some elements of this sector as management by the wild west. Residents have used stronger words to me to describe the people who run some of these sites. That is why we need justice.

Local authorities are often too reluctant or slow to intervene when problems arise, including complaints about site licence breaches, poor maintenance or sale blocking, or concerns about whether a site owner is a fit and proper person to manage the site. Resolving those problems can take years, and there are ample opportunities for site owners to duck and delay the process. I welcome the consultation on the 10% commission, and I look forward to updates on that; however, is the Minister assured that local authorities have the right mix of powers and resources to lead on this work? Do we need a national approach and better standards?

Before I finish, I want to speak about utilities, which many Members have mentioned. Like others, I have raised with the Minister for Energy issues such as the energy discount. That is an important measure that the Government introduced to help homeowners and bill payers with the cost of living, but for many park home owners in my constituency, the bill is paid directly by the site owner, and the lack of transparency, agency and power means that, yet again, something that should be good news for homeowners is tainted by the power imbalance between site owners and homeowners.