Fees and charges policy for licenced mobile home sites

Updated 30 March 2023

Scope

This policy sets out the approach taken to the setting of fees for the licensing and regulation of mobile home sites by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council (‘the Council’). It should be read in conjunction with the Council’s Licensed Mobile Homes Procedure and corporate Fees & Charges Policy.

Introduction

The Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, as amended by the Mobile Homes Act 2013, (‘the Act’), authorises local authorities to issue licences in respect of ‘relevant protected sites’ and to require applications for such licences to be accompanied by a fee fixed by the authority. Fees may also be charged for applications to transfer site licences or to change conditions in site licences. Furthermore, local authorities may charge for the administration and monitoring of site licences by the levy of an annual fee.

The Mobile Homes (Requirement for Manager of Site to be Fit and Proper Person) (England) Regulations 2020 (‘the Fit and Proper Person Regulations’) introduced a fit and proper person test (FPPT) for mobile home site owners or the person appointed to manage the site. From 1 July 2021 and by 1 October 2021, all site owners must have applied to be assessed as fit and proper persons. Fees may be charged for assessing applications to enable local authorities to recover the costs of this activity. Furthermore, local authorities may cover the cost of monitoring the scheme or conditions attached to entries by the levy of an annual fee.

Reigate & Banstead Borough Council, ‘the Council’, is the local authority for the purposes of the Act and has agreed to make charges for the licensing of relevant protected sites in accordance with the powers granted under the Act.

A relevant protected site is defined in the Act as ‘any land to be used as a caravan site, other than one where the application for a licence is:

• For holiday use only, or
• Subject to restrictions or conditions which limit the times of the year when the site may be used for stationing caravans for human habitation (e.g. planning conditions)’

Before a local authority can charge a fee, it must prepare and publish a fees policy. When fixing a fee, the local authority:

• Must act in accordance with its fees policy
• May fix different fees in different cases
• May determine that no fee is required in some cases

Any fees charged must fairly cover the costs (or part of the costs) incurred by the Council in performing its functions under Part 1 of the Act, (excluding the costs of enforcement action or any functions relating to prohibiting caravans on commons or provision of sites by the local authority itself). Any charges relating to the Fit and Proper Person function will be limited to recovering the costs of exercising that function.