Gypsy sites budget cut after £15m underspend

In May, communities secretary Eric Pickles announced that the budget for the programme this financial year - also £32 million - was to be scrapped altogether.

Inside Housing has discovered that of the budget for 2009/10 only £1.5 million was spent and £15 million was diverted to the national affordable housing programme.

Although £17 million was allocated to 21 councils for 90 new pitches last year, the HCA has still to spend £15.5 million of that.

A spokesperson for the HCA said: ‘Because the allocations in 2009/10 were only agreed by John Denham, then secretary of state, in mid-February, very little of the allocated budget was spent, and as a result, funding was carried forward into this year.

‘The 2010/11 budget was cut completely, leaving the remainder of the 2009/10 unspent allocations - around £15.5 million - to spend this year.’

The previous government originally put £97 million into the programme to increase the number of sites from 2008 to 2011. The HCA took over the programme last year, and its budget was £64 million for two years.

Gypsy and Traveller campaigning groups claim just 50 to 60 additional pitches have been built so far. Most of the money spent has gone on refurbishing sites.

Steve Staines, planning worker for campaigning group Friends, Families and Travellers, said he believed the money from last year’s budget had not been spent because councils did not want to create new pitches.

‘There’s money left because it was not bid for,’ he claimed. ‘Despite there being a clear need, councils don’t want the money. It’s too controversial.’

Communities secretary Eric Pickles recently announced that he intends to scrap regional spatial strategies, which include targets for numbers of pitches for Gypsies and Travellers. This leaves councils able to decide on the number needed themselves.

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