Housing (Assessment of Accommodation Needs) (Meaning of Gypsies and Travellers) (Wales) Regulations 2007

Made: 12 November 2007

Laid before the National Assembly for Wales: 14 November 2007

Coming into force: 14 December 2007

The Welsh Ministers, in exercise of the powers conferred on the National Assembly for Wales by section 225(5)(a) of the Housing Act 2004[^f00001] and now vested[^f00002] in the Welsh Ministers, make the following Regulations:

Title, commencement and application

1

• (1) The title of these Regulations is the Housing (Assessment of Accommodation Needs) (Meaning of Gypsies and Travellers) (Wales) Regulations 2007 and they come into force on 14 December 2007.

• (2) These Regulations apply where a local housing authority in Wales undertakes a review of housing needs in their district under section 8 of the Housing Act 1985.

Meaning of Gypsies and Travellers for the purposes of section 225 of the Housing Act 2004

2

For the purposes of section 225 of the Housing Act 2004 (duties of local housing authorities: accommodation needs of gypsies and travellers) “gypsies and travellers” (“sipswn a theithwyr”) means—

• (a) persons with a cultural tradition of nomadism or of living in a caravan; and

• (b) all other persons of a nomadic habit of life, whatever their race or origin, including—

• (i) such persons who, on grounds only of their own or their family’s or dependant’s educational or health needs or old age, have ceased to travel temporarily or permanently; and

• (ii) members of an organised group of travelling showpeople or circus people (whether or not travelling together as such).

Signed

Jocelyn Davies — Under authority of the Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing, one of the Welsh Ministers — 12 November 2007

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Section 225 of the Housing Act 2004 imposes a duty on local housing authorities to carry out an assessment of the accommodation needs of gypsies and travellers residing in or resorting to their district, when undertaking a review of housing needs in their district under section 8 of the Housing Act 1985.

These Regulations define “gypsies and travellers” for the purposes of that duty in relation to Wales.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment has been prepared in connection with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained from the Communities Directorate, Welsh Assembly Government, Merthyr Tydfil Office, Rhydycar, Merthyr Tydfil, CF48 1UZ, telephone 01685 729210, or email Laura.Evans@wales.gsi.gov.uk.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 2004 c. 34. The power conferred by section 225 is exercisable as respects Wales, by the National Assembly for Wales. See the definition of the “appropriate national authority” in section 261(1) of the 2004 Act.

[^f00002]: The power of the National Assembly for Wales under section 225 is transferred to the Welsh Ministers by paragraph 30 of Schedule 11 to the Government of Wales Act 2006 (c. 32).