A BIG thank-you to Peter and Margaret Malaband at New Park, Bovey Tracey for such a warm welcome and the opportunity to listen to local park home residents during my most recent visit.

It was good to spend time sitting in their living room having a cup of tea and talking through the key issues facing them, and hearing directly how national decisions are affecting them.

Park homes are no longer a niche part of our housing mix. Across the country there are now well over 100,000 park homes on nearly 2,000 sites, with many residents retired and on fixed incomes.

The sector has been growing, with average park home prices rising by around six to seven per cent in the last year alone at a time when many traditional house prices have been flat or falling.

This tells us two things. First, demand is strong because park homes offer community and single-storey living. Second, residents are being squeezed as values and costs rise faster than many pensions and savings.

Park home residents across the country are deeply concerned about the fairness of some of the charges they face.

Across England many park home owners have long campaigned against practices such as high sales commissions and opaque fees.

One of the issues residents raised with me in Bovey Tracey is the commission on home sales. The current government needs to look further into these issues.

Overall whilst park homes help meet housing need, the number of new residential park homes being manufactured each year is modest. This is regrettable.

With more older people are looking to downsize, a failure to plan properly for park homes risks storing up even greater pressure on traditional housing and social care.

Park home residents in Central Devon know that this is not a new issue for me. I was a key contributor to the reforms that became the Mobile Homes Act 2013 which strengthened legal protections for park home residents, cracked down on unfair pitch fee increases and gave councils stronger powers to act where sites are not properly maintained.

Over many years I have supported local residents’ groups, including at New Park and other sites across my constituency, taken up specific cases and pressed ministers to go further on issues like fees, transparency and security of tenure.

My commitment after this latest visit is clear. I will continue to press in Parliament for stronger protections on pitch fees and charges, better targeting of support schemes at park home residents and a housing strategy that recognises the role of park homes in rural areas like ours.

Most of all, I will keep coming back, listening and making sure that the voices of special places like New Park are heard loud and clear in Westminster.

Sir Mel Stride

Conservative MP for Central Devon