CHRISTCHURCH MP Sir Christopher Chope has called for changes to ensure the fair treatment of mobile home residents.

Veteran Conservative Sir Christopher said his Mobile Homes Act 1983 (Amendment) Bill attempts to “try and improve the lot of people who are residents on park home sites” by ensuring they pay fair pitch fees.

Communities Minister Kelly Tolhurst said she is “keen” to work with Sir Christopher to “deliver the ambition that we all share – to better protect park home residents”.

Introducing his Bill in the Commons, Sir Christopher said: “We know that mobile park homes provide residential accommodation for around 85,000 households on some 2,000 sites in England.

“Most of those residents are of pensionable age, they normally own their own home and they pay rent to the site owner for the land to which the home is stationed.

“This Bill makes two changes to the Mobile Homes Act 1983 which will help all these residents and those changes were set out by the Government in their response, the Government’s own response to its call for evidence in 2017 on the review of park homes legislation.”

Sir Christopher told MPs that, following the review, the Government promised to “ensure that residents only pay for services they are required to pay for through the pitch fee”.

He added that they also pledged to “bring legislation forward in due course to amend and clarify the definition of a pitch fee and prevent the use of variable service charges in written agreements when parliamentary time allows”.

Sir Christopher continued: “And that is exactly what this Bill does – it enables the parliamentary time to be done for this.”

Ms Tolhurst replied: “As (Sir Christopher) has outlined, the Government is committed to effective reform of the park homes sector.

“So I would like to start by saying that whilst, as (Sir Christopher) has already outlined, I have been unable to support how the Bill has been drafted currently, I have agreed and I am keen to work with (Sir Christopher) and other members of the all-party parliamentary group to explore options for how we can bring forward these priorities and deliver on the ambition that we all share to better protect park home residents.

“And I very much hope (Sir Christopher) will commit to working with me over the following weeks in order to do so.”

The Bill ran out of time to be fully debated at second reading and has been requested to resume on November 6 but it will not have priority to be debated on that date.