Welsh Government fails to ensure local authorities are providing sufficient accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers

Date of article: 04/04/2024

Daily News of: 05/04/2024

Country: United Kingdom - Wales

Author: Public Services Ombudsman for Wales

Article language: en

The complaint

The Ombudsman launched an investigation after Mr A and Mr B complained about the way Welsh Government dealt with a complaint they had made regarding the provision of accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers.

Mr A and Mr B complained that Welsh Government had failed to ensure that the local authorities in the areas in which they lived, were taking action to meet the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers as required by the Housing (Wales) Act 2014.

Mr A and Mr B also complained that Welsh Government did not deal properly with a complaint they made about this matter.

What the Ombudsman found

The Housing (Wales) Act 2014 introduced a legal duty on local authorities to produce Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessments (GTAAs) and submit them to Welsh Government for approval. If an approved GTAA shows need for accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers the Housing (Wales) Act 2014 requires a local authority to use its powers to meet that need. Welsh Government had committed to annual monitoring of local authorities to ensure that local authorities were acting on the findings of their GTAAs.

The Ombudsman found that whilst the legal duty to provide accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers, where needed, falls to local authorities, Welsh Government had failed to fulfil its critical leadership role in ensuring this happened. No monitoring of approved GTAAs had taken place since January 2020. Welsh Government had also failed to engage appropriately with the local authorities where the complainants live and had failed to assess updated GTAAs from both local authorities despite them being submitted over 2 years ago in December 2021 and February 2022

This constrained the ability of these local authorities to carry out their duties and caused frustration and distress to Mr A and Mr B, and potentially other members of the Gypsy and Traveller community in Wales, whose accommodation needs remain unmet. GTAAs are intended to address the lack of understanding of the accommodation needs of Gypsies and Travellers in Wales and ensure they can access culturally appropriate accommodation. The identified lack of accommodation available meant that Mr A has not been able to provide support to his family and that Mr B and his family continue to endure a prolonged period of homelessness.

The Ombudsman also found that Mr A and Mr B’s complaint was not dealt with in accordance with Welsh Government policy. Welsh Government wrongly classified their complaint as one that could not be considered under its policy and took an excessive amount of time to inform Mr A and Mr B of this.

“There have been significant failings by Welsh Government which has failed to fulfil its leadership role to ensure local authorities were taking action to meet the need for accommodation for Gypsies and Travellers. Delay and inaction by Welsh Government has led to stagnation and constrained the ability of local authorities to meet the accommodation needs. The lack of available accommodation has meant that Mr A has potentially been unable to live with his wider family and provide support to them and Mr B and his family have been homeless for a number of years. This is an injustice to them and a source of great stress and frustration.

When Mr A and Mr B complained to Welsh Government about these failings, they were incorrectly told that their enquiry did not fall within the scope of its complaint policy. The time taken to tell Mr A and Mr B this was excessive. The poor handling of their complaint was further evidence of maladministration on the part of Welsh Government and contrary to our Complaints Standards Authority Principles of Effective Complaint Handling”

Commenting on the report, Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Michelle Morris, said:

The Ombudsman’s recommendations

The Ombudsman recommended that Welsh Government should apologise to Mr A and Mr B and pay them £1,000 each for the failings she identified and the impact upon them.

In addition, the Ombudsman recommended that Welsh Government should:

ensure that it informs local authorities clearly of the requirement to continue to take steps to meet identified need in approved GTAAs whilst updated GTAAs are being assessed by Welsh Government
determine whether to approve the revised GTAAs submitted by local authorities
set out a plan for how it will review the GTAA process and monitoring arrangements.
- remind staff who deal with complaints of the importance of responding in a timely manner. It should also ensure that all staff who deal with complaints receive training on its complaints policy and how it should be applied.