This report on research into the costs of unauthorised encampments is structured as follows:

• • An outline of how the current law and policy relating to encampments in the United Kingdom was conceived and formulated, to set out clearly the background to these matters.

• • The findings of the Traveller Law Research Unit (TLRU) as to the costs of such encampments and some of the issues raised by them.

• • The Best Value regime, and other important and recent major legislative changes that may play a part in spending and policy related to encampments in the future; described and analysed in the context of related costs.

It is hoped that this research may assist with broadening views about who encampments concern, and with the process of developing approaches to encampments that are lawful, fair, balanced and practical. This book is intended for use by:

• • Local authorities, police services and others involved with managing encampments: to aid them in looking ‘laterally’ at the issues as the government suggests and in the development of best practice; and to inform them as to how the cross-cutting issues engendered by new legislation might affect and assist them.

• • Travelling People and those who provide services to them: to provide information as to the possible effects of current law and policy around encampments and other legislative developments.

• • Central government: to assist the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Home Office, the Audit Commission, and perhaps other agencies such as the Social Exclusion (Cabinet Office) and Inclusion (Scotland) Units, with their policy development in this area.

• • The many students and staff members at all levels of the education system and in other fields who are themselves conducting research into issues of Best Value and/or those affecting Travelling People: this research makes a tentative step towards diminishing the lack of practical data and provides useful background material on current law and policy.

• • Those who only see unauthorised encampments as a ‘problem’: acknowledging that they can be indeed, but that this is a complex issue requiring a wider understanding.