Landowners are blackmailing communities into accepting
house building by threatening to hand sites over gipsies and travellers, Tory
MPs have claimed. There were warnings that traveller groups can ‘acquire highly
lucrative planning rights’ which are not available to other people in order to
develop land. Ministers insisted that gipsies and travellers deserve the same
rights as anyone else but conceded action is needed to ‘ensure that everybody
is treated equally’. During a Westminster Hall debate, MPs complained of
‘massive abuse’ of the system which sees some people become very ‘wealthy’ by
claiming to be a traveller and acquiring land. Read more on the Daily Mail
website.
