Mobile Homes Site Licensing Fees Policy consultation

Overview

We want to hear your views on the introduction and harmonisation of fees associated with mobile home site licensing.

The Mobile Homes Act 2013 permits local authorities to set fees in order to recover the cost of administering the mobile home site licensing regime.

The definition of sites for the purpose of fee setting is mobile home sites where residents are permitted to live on site all year round.

Currently, there are some historical fees for the former Chiltern and South Bucks areas and no fees for the former Wycombe or Aylesbury Vale areas.

We are proposing to harmonise our approach to charging fees to:

• ensure that it is consistent for all site licence holders
• recover the cost of administering the licensing regime

This includes the cost of:

• inspecting sites for compliance with conditions
• handling queries and complaints about sites
• processing applications

Draft Mobile Homes Site Licensing Fees Policy

The proposed approach is to set fees within a banding structure based on the size of the site (the size of the site is based on the number of pitches permitted). It was not considered fair to set a flat fee for all sites due to the disproportionate charge that smaller sites would receive to cover the cost of delivering services to larger sites.

Site licence holders can pass the cost of the proposed annual fee on to their residents through the process of reviewing their annual pitch fees.

The existing fee policies for the Chiltern and South Bucks areas include two situations when a site is exempt from paying annual fees. These are:

• sites with five or less caravans as they are considered to be low risk
• sites solely for the site owner and their immediate family and not run for financial gain

It is recommended that this exemption is carried over into the draft policy for Buckinghamshire.

On Tuesday 17 June 2025, Licensing Committee agreed that feedback should be sought on the proposed fees so the Committee can take the views of those affected into consideration when determining fees. We want to hear your views on:

• the proposed approach to band fees based on site size
• the level of the fees proposed
• any other matters in relation to the fees and associated policy

Related documents and links

Before you respond to this activity, please have a look at the following documents and links:

• Caravan site licences | Buckinghamshire Council
• Draft Mobile Homes Site Licensing Fees Policy (PDF 0.17MB)
• Chiltern Caravan Site Fees Policy 2018 (PDF 0.29MB)
• South Bucks Caravan Site Fees Policy 2018 (PDF 0.29MB)
• Neighbouring authority fee benchmarking (PDF 0.07MB)
• Report to Licensing Committee – Tuesday 17 June 2025 (PDF 0.13MB)
• Mobile Homes Act 2013: a guide for local authorities on setting licence fees - GOV.UK

How to have your say

You can tell us your views in one of the following ways:

• complete the online survey using the link at the end of the page
• complete, and return, a printed version of the survey (PDF 0.22MB)
• email us at environmentalhealth@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
• write to us at Mobile homes site licensing fees policy consultation, Residential Environmental Health Team, Buckinghamshire Council, Walton Street Offices, Walton Street, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP20 1UA

If you have any questions about this activity, or require this information in another format or language, please email us at environmentalhealth@buckinghamshire.gov.uk or phone us on 0300 131 6000.

Please tell us your views by 11:59pm on Sunday 24 August 2025.

What happens next

Once the consultation has closed, all feedback received will be collated and analysed. The feedback from the consultation process will then be presented to the Licensing Committee. The Committee will consider and discuss whether any changes should be made to the proposed fees, prior to making a final decision.

Privacy

We will use the information you provide here only for this activity. We will store the information securely in line with data protection laws and will not share or publish any personal details. Survey responses will be analysed using Microsoft products including Copilot, Excel and Word. For more information about data and privacy, please see our Privacy Policy.

If you have questions about data and privacy, please email us on dataprotection@buckinghamshire.gov.uk or write to our Data Protection Officer at Buckinghamshire Council, The Gateway, Gatehouse Road, Aylesbury, HP19 8FF.