Vol. 404 No. 7
80 Mr. J. Mitchell asked the Minister for the Environment the number of dwellings which were provided nationally in 1990 for travelling families; the total number of travelling families awaiting serviced sites to be financed in 1991 and their location; if he will give a projection of when all travelling families will be offered a serviced site; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Travelling families may be accommodated by housing authorities in standard local authority housing through casual vacancies occurring therein, in group housing specially constructed for travelling families or in newly constructed standard local authority housing. As the letting of local authority houses is a matter for the individual authority in accordance with their approved scheme of letting priorities, information on the numbers of such letting to travelling families in 1990 is not available in my Department.
Preliminary figures from the 1990 count of travelling families carried out by local authorities in November 1990 show that, at that date, 1,696 families were accommodated in local authority standard and group housing while another 1,136 families were on the roadside. Some of the families on the roadside would wish to be accommodated in housing while others might wish to be accommodated on serviced sites. It is not possible to indicate when all travelling families who are seeking accommodation on serviced sites will be so accommodated as this is affected by the rate at which local authorities provide such sites and other factors, such as the rate of new family formation among travellers. Local authorities will, however, continue to be encouraged to provide such accommodation as quickly as possible and sufficient capital to finance their proposals will continue to be made available to authorities.
