Citation and interpretation
1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Commencement No.8 and Transitional, Transitory and Saving Provisions) Order 2011.
(2) In this Order—
“the 1983 Act” means the Mobile Homes Act 1983(1);
“the 2008 Act” means the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008;
“commencement date” means 30th April 2011;
“existing agreement” means a local authority agreement which is made before the commencement date;
“gypsies and travellers” means persons of nomadic habit of life, whatever their race or origin, but does not include members of an organised group of travelling showpeople, or persons engaged in travelling circuses, travelling together as such(2);
“local authority agreement” means an agreement under which a person is entitled to station a mobile home on a local authority gypsy and traveller site in England;
“local authority gypsy and traveller site” means any land which is occupied by a local authority as a caravan site providing accommodation for gypsies and travellers;
“permanent pitch” means a pitch on which a person is entitled to station a mobile home under the terms of an agreement to which the 1983 Act applies and which is not a transit pitch;
“pitch” means land, forming part of a local authority gypsy and traveller site in England and including any garden area, on which a person is entitled to station a mobile home; and
“transit pitch” means a pitch on which a person is entitled to station a mobile home, under the terms of an agreement to which the 1983 Act applies, for a fixed period of up to 3 months.
(3) Other expressions used, but not defined, in this Order and which are used in the 1983 Act have the same meaning in this Order as they have in the 1983 Act.
Section 5 of the Mobile Homes Act 1983, before amendment by section 318 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (c. 17), provides that the 1983 Act does not apply to land occupied by a local authority as a caravan site providing accommodation for gipsies. The definition of ‘gipsies’ which this exclusion relied upon was repealed by section 80 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 (c. 33), though it was saved for the purpose of interpreting section 5. This definition of ‘gypsies and travellers’ derives from that saved definition.