Conventional Housing

In Clarke v The Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, a planning inspector had taken into account the previous offer of conventional housing made to a Gypsy family when he rejected their appeal against the refusal of planning permission. The family had found the offer unacceptable, having never lived in a house in their lives. The High Court (in a judgment that was upheld by the Court of Appeal) found that the inspector’s decision breached the Gypsy family’s rights protected by Article 8 of the Convention and stated:

‘If [an immutable antipathy to conventional housing] be established then, in my judgment, bricks and mortar, if offered, are unsuitable, just as would be the offer of a rat infested barn. It would be contrary to Articles 8 and 14 to expect such a person to accept conventional housing and to hold it against him or her that he has not accepted it, or is not prepared to accept it, even as a last resort factor.’

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