SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Travellers and showmen cash in on UK housing crisis by cramming mobiles onto their sites and renting them to ANYONE

TRAVELLERS and travelling showmen are cashing in on the UK housing crisis by cramming mobile homes onto their caravan sites and renting them out to anyone in an "illicit" property boom after years of claiming there is a drastic shortage of sites for their own communities.

Sites across the country, meant to be occupied by people from the gypsy, traveller or travelling showmen communities under strict planning rules, are increasingly being let out to large numbers of non-travellers, a UK News and Investigations probe found.

One site has been dubbed a potential "Grenfell the Ground" due to fears over risk of fire spread after rows of up to 30 static homes were packed together, despite no planning permission or Caravan Site Licence being granted for the unauthorised expansions.

Buckles Lane Aerials

For years travellers have built illegally on green belt sites then applied for retrospective planning permission through lefty lawyers and planning agents, who use human rights grounds and the argument there is a nationwide shortage of pitches, to get special approval to live there.

When Irish travellers illegally more than doubled the size of the Dale Farm site near Basildon from 2001 their argument was clear - "we have been forced to do this because there is nowhere else for us to go."

Aided by an army of activists, they seized on the fact that local councils had not been compelled to designate land for sites for gypsies, travellers and travelling showmen since 1994 and the majority were not doing so.

The modus operandi has been consistent ever since. Green belt land is purchased then illegally concreted over, usually over a bank holiday weekend, with a retrospective planning application prepared by 

leftie lawyers or planning agents lodged with the council as soon as it reopens.

Together with human rights arguments those lawyers and agents used the council's lack of site provision as a key argument why they should approve the illegal development.

As a series of illegal developments sprang up across the country, in 2005, then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, set targets for traveller and showmen pitch provision to councils saying 4,500 pitches were needed nationally.

The council targets were later scrapped, but individual councils are still expected to designate land for sites, where there is a need through local plans.

Planning agents acting for travellers still push this argument as a key reason why permission should be granted.

So you may expect desperately needed traveller pitches to be sacrosanct and reserved solely for travellers.

Only people from these specific communities can live there, usually named occupants, but our investigation found some land owners from the communities have extended sites or crammed in more caravans, without licenses, reducing availability to other travellers at the same time.

It has resulted in several sites housing an array of new occupants, including evicted tenants, people who can't afford anywhere else, illegal immigrants, organised criminals and even fugitives, with some travellers not involved in the lettings moving out due to antisocial behaviour, according to whistleblowers.

It is alleged that some unscrupulous traveller landlords have created fire risks by placing static homes too close to each other with added fears over the quality of connections to utilities such as electricity and water and the capacity of local substations.

With rents of up to £170 a week for a basic static caravan, some landlords are allegedly "putting pound signs over safety".

But, local councils responsible for enforcing planning and caravan site laws are "turning a blind eye" to the problem because they don't want to have to house any of the non-travellers or non-showmen who would be evicted, sources, including a former MP claim.

In one case, at the huge Buckles Lane travelling showman's site in South Ockendon, Essex, about 76 percent of its estimated more than 1,000 occupants are now people not supposed to be living there.

We found adverts for static caravans at the site that have been published on Rightmove, Gumtree and Facebook for rates of between £120 and £170 a week.

Some units have been let to organised criminals, wanting an out of sight base, including Romanian prostitution and UK county lines gangs, according to whistleblowers.

It emerged this year that organised criminals, some linked to far right extremism, set up a gun and explosives-making workshop in a unit on the sprawling site.

Those behind the operation, where imported blank firing pistols were converted into lethal firearms and gunpowder and homemade bomb-making instructions were found, were sentenced this month.

In another example, at what remains at the authorised section of the notorious Dale Farm site, near Basildon, traveller owners sublet an authorised pitch to an Albanian crime gang, which established a cannabis factory inside the property, which should only be occupied by gypsies.

And, last September a 46-year-old man who was wanted to serve a three-year and seven month sentence for a 2023 burglary and drink driving conviction in his native Romania was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant while living at a traveller site in Banbury, Oxfordshire, to face extradition proceedings.

Buckles Lane started out as winter quarters for travelling showmen and was authorised to have 31 caravan pitches.

It has been expanded largely without any planning permission or required caravan site licence over the years and the last survey for Thurrock Council found it had expanded to about 111 pitches, with 835 static caravans across them, making it the biggest such site in the country.

Some travelling showmen there have been complicit in the problem by filling their pitches with up to 30 static caravans and renting them out, but the influx of new occupants is said to have caused misery to others that didn't.

Some of the units are allegedly let to shift workers on a 12-hour basis so are occupied by two people at a time, according to sources.

The survey found 634 of the 835 units were let to non-showmen and many of the original families had moved from the site due to "crime and antisocial behaviour" brought by some of the new occupants.

Former Thurrock MP Jackie Doyle-Price (below) repeatedly raised concerns about the trend with the council after being contacted by law-abiding residents of Buckles Lane before she lost her seat in 2024 but said it had still done nothing to enforce the law despite promises to act.

She said: "Thurrock Council continues to look the other way and has done nothing to make the site compliant with the law. It was made very clear to the council that if things were not sorted it would become a lawless place and this is what is happening. It is my understanding the council does not act because it does not want to have to house the people it would make homeless."

Showman occupants we spoke to would not be named, saying "we don't speak to the press" but there were mixed views among them.

One woman in her 50s said: "Some people contacted the MP who tried to help but the council still hasn't done anything and we are living in fear in a place that was once perfect for our families."

A man in his 40s said: "It has changed, but is still a relatively safe area. Anywhere with a lot of people will get problems, but the people renting out statics are doing the council a favour because they don't have anywhere and just making a few quid at the same time."

A Romanian who has been living on the site while doing "construction work" said: "This place is OK. It is basic, but I can afford and once inside my caravan that's it."

One Facebook page (below) listed static homes at Buckles Lane for £160 a week for gas and electricity.

A man who answered the mobile phone number listed said he would not comment on the situation as "everything would be twisted."

One another Facebook group set up to advertise lettings at Buckles Lane, a woman asked on January 19 if any were free, but was told by the administrator they were full.

The issue of non-permitted occupants being allowed to rent units on sites has affected many parts of the country with councils taking different stances.

Records of South Cambridgeshire Council meetings show surveys found many of its sites occupied by non-travellers but councillors opted for a "measured" enforcement approach as "there may be some occupiers where the council will have a duty to provide alternative accommodation."

But, in November a Planning Inspector backed Wiltshire Council which had taken enforcement action against traveller site owner Patrick Ward.

His Greenacres site near Trowbridge was authorised for only traveller occupation of 28 mobile homes over 14 pitches.

However, it was expanded to a total of 77 caravans, many of which were rented out on the open market, the planning appeal heard.

He must now evict non traveller families and remove their homes or could face prosecution.

There are records of similar disputes at sites in Enderby, Leicestershire, Ketering, Northamptonshire and at Arlesey, Bedfordshire.

The issue has blown a hole in the long-claimed argument that traveller families have been forced to develop green belt illegally due to a drastic nationwide shortage of traveller pitches.

One man who blew the whistle after spending years helping travellers win retrospective planning permission for sites to occupy agreed to speak out on condition of anonymity.

He said: "It makes it hard to maintain the argument that there is a national shortage of traveller pitches if so many people are willing to rent their sites to anyone.

"Some traveller landlords are seeing pound signs over anything else and making a fortune through an illicit rental scheme.

"This is happening on sites across the country, but local councils are reluctant to do anything as if they take enforcement action, there will be a flood of new people applying to their emergency homeless list.

"So, in truth some councils welcome this as it keeps otherwise homeless people off their books. I know of cases where councils are even directing people who approach them as homeless to a traveller site, saying it is the only place available, although they will never admit this. Some people even have the rent paid to live on traveller sites through benefits.

"It means traveller sites subletting to non-travellers are taking in people who no one else will, such as evicted tenants and illegal immigrants.

"But, I also know of cases where nurses and people in paid employment are living on traveller sites because they can't afford anywhere else.

"It also means some traveller landlords are cramming in as many homes as possible, and are making tens of thousands of pounds, putting cash over safety, but the councils are largely not issuing planning enforcement notices for the reason I gave."

Thurrock Council has issued a number of enforcement notices and obtained injunction against some of the unauthorised development at Buckles Lane, but it has yet to enforce any evictions or clearances.

Another source, who works with the showmen community and would not be named, said: "Some of the pitch owners have left Buckles Lane and have put on as many static homes as they can fit on just for the rental income, but this has created a lot of problems. Firstly there is the fire risk as they are so close together. This is Grenfell on the ground in waiting. There are large areas with no planning permission. Then there is the strain on the local electricity and water supplies, which need upgrading, and have they been properly connected?

"Because some of the landlords are not living there, they don't care who moves on. Organised crime groups have moved in and are causing problems with the showmen families still living there. In one case a Romanian gang hassled young girls from the community to try to recruit them into prostitution.

"The site was raided by armed police who found firearms and explosives. This has all been raised with police, the fire service and, particularly Thurrock Council, but little is being done."

Their fears are backed by a council-commission report by Opinion Research Services, which looked at the need for showmen accommodation across Thurrock.

It said: "ORS identified a number of instances where households were seeking to move from Buckles Lane in the next five years – mainly as a result of overcrowding or increasing numbers of non-Showmen.

"The reasons for the levels of subletting that were identified are thought to be because of changes to the way that Travelling Showmen are now conducting their business activities to cope with the decline in the popularity of traditional funfairs.

"The Council will have to give careful consideration about how to deal with the issues related to the sub-letting of plots at Buckles Lane to non-Showmen. Interviews with Showmen living on Buckles Lane and with those who have moved away since the previous

(assessment) suggest that levels of crime and anti-social behaviour from non-Showmen are some of the primary reasons why households have moved away and are ongoing concerns that are likely to lead to more Showmen leaving Buckles Lane.

"In addition, should a view be taken to return these plots to accommodation for Showmen, the council may find itself in a position of having to rehouse a substantial number of households elsewhere in Thurrock."

A Thurrock Council spokesperson said: "Thurrock Council has an injunction in place which prevents any further development of land at Buckles Lane and action has been taken to enforce on this injunction several times.

"Work to resolve issues at the site is ongoing. This is a highly complex issue and involves a great many vulnerable people who the council are working to protect. We are in contact with representatives of the Travelling Showpeople community living in Buckles Lane and will continue working closely with them."

The council said it works with Essex Police, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and utility companies to enhance the site and protect the wellbeing of those that live there.

An Essex Fire Service spokesperson said: "We have carried out a number of community safety initiatives at Buckles Lane and continue to support the residents of this site and indeed all surrounding areas. We provide fire safety advice, guidance and education as well as free fire detection equipment to site occupiers and work in partnership with our local authorities to promote an area which is safe to live, work and travel."

Development of permanent traveller sites has often been controversial as specialist lawyers and planning agents have long used human rights grounds to argue there are special personal circumstances that mean a family should be able to occupy green belt land despite any development usually being outlawed.

But, it usually means that only named individual members of the travelling community could occupy the land and, if anyone else moved on, planning permission would lapse.

However, a "blackmarket" real estate industry was created with authorised sites often later changing hands for increased sums, with local planning authorties reluctant to take any enfrocmeemht action once a site was established.

The most infamous case was the Dale Farm site at Crays Hill, near Basildon, Essex.

By the late 1990s English gypsies had gained planning permission to occupy about 40 pitches on the green belt land.

But from 2000 onwards, Irish Travellers bought up most of the plots from the English and then illegally more than doubled the size of the site.

In 2011 Basildon Council made international headlines when it carried out a multi-million pound eviction operation, to clear the unauthorised areas, in conjunction with Essex Police.

The authorised half of the site remains with some pitches rented to non-travellers, including crime gangs.

In December 2024 police raided a pitch at the site and found 106 cannabis plants and weapons inside a converted property that had been let by travellers to Albanians.

Edward Kola, 35, tried to escape through the roof (above) but was spotted and caught and later admitted to charges of producing a controlled drug of Class B at Southend Magistrates Court and sentenced to 26 weeks in prison.  

A Basildon Council spokesperson said rentals to non travellers had been found on six sites in its borough and it has taken action including prosecutions.

Its investigations have found "foreign nationals who are non-Gypsy and Travellers and are paying unidentified landowners rent" and in some case "evidence that occupants have been in receipt of housing benefit or Universal Credit."

He said: "Basildon Council takes this matter very seriously and raises enforcement investigations for all complaints received from members of the public alleging breach of condition for permitted sites restricted for Gypsy and traveller use.

"Our position is this practice deprives the community of pitches which have been approved and exacerbates the outstanding need for Gypsy and traveller pitches."

"Site visits have been undertaken by Planning Enforcement officers in conjunction with Essex Police and Home Office Immigration Service.

"Between 2022 and 2024, on a large unauthorised development in the Green Belt at Newlands Avenue, Wickford the Council has taken significant and extensive action against unauthorised development involving the creation of additional plots used for the residential use of caravans largely for non-Gypsy and travellers.

"In August 2025, the council successfully prosecuted a landowner in the Hovefields area, where the conditions of the planning permission limiting the number of caravans and the residential use to Gypsy/Travellers were breached and despite the council serving a Breach of Condition Notice they took no remedial action. The Court fined the landowner £1,000 plus a £400 surcharge. “The council has two other prosecutions currently underway for other sites in the Hovefields area related to similar issues.”

The Department for Communities and Local Government, which has previously set now scrapped traveller pitch targets for councils, the Planning Inspectorate and Local Government Association, would not address the issue, saying it was for local councils to determine traveller site provision.

Various organisations which support travellers, including the London and Home Counties Section Committee of the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain, but they declined to comment.