MHCLG Secretary Robert Jenrick MP has published a Written Ministerial Statement (WMS) to support tourism in England.

In the statement, Jenrick calls on local planning authorities to take a positive approach to their engagement with commercial campsites for leisure use to ensure planning controls are not a barrier to local tourism and hospitality’s economic recovery.  You can find the full statement linked here, and an extract below:

“The Government wants to support domestic tourism. To do this, we will encourage greater temporary campsite capacity over the summer through updated guidance.

“Last year the Government introduced a temporary permitted development right which allows for the temporary use of land as a commercial campsite for up to 56 days, without the need to apply for planning permission. This allows businesses across the tourism and hospitality sectors to establish temporary ‘pop up’ campsites on their land to meet additional demand. We would like to see more of these businesses taking advantage of this opportunity over the summer, so we will encourage local planning authorities to take a flexible and proportionate approach to the enforcement of planning controls, including restrictions through planning conditions on existing campsites, which may limit the temporary extension of commercial campsites for leisure use over this holiday season.”

NB This Written Ministerial Statement only covers England and expires on 31 October 2021.