New research project launch with Birmingham City University: Narrow Margins

Having somewhere to live in the way you wish is a right, a basic need and a social good first and most importantly. Not an investment opportunity for profit.

How will legislation like the Police Act affect these models of thinking and impact upon Gypsies and Travellers, protestors and squatters? How do we understand – and resist – the dominance of property ownership in England and Wales?

We are proud to announce the launch of a new research project – Narrow Margins - working with Birmingham City University Social Sciences department and led by Dr Sam Burgum working to answer these questions and more over the next two years.

Life on the Narrow Margins – ‘Where can we go?’
Samuel Burgum, Birmingham City University

The question we hear again and again from those stopping on the roadside is, ‘but where else can we go’?

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 – or ‘the Police Act’ – is just the latest chapter in a long history of criminalising and marginalising Gypsies and Travellers.

Trespass, or stopping on land you do not own, is now a criminal offence if it might cause "disruption, damage or distress." The Act increases police powers to evict families, fine them thousands of pounds, and confiscate their homes and belongings. All for having nowhere else to turn due to lack of site pitches and stopping places (often from strong public and local authority resistance against planning permission or funding).

The Narrow Margins research project (Sep 2022-Sep 2024) aims to expose the violent impact of the Police Act on people’s lives, their voices, and their rights. Because what is clear is who these new laws are targeting. The public consultation on unauthorised encampments, for example, drew an imaginary line in the sand between ‘unauthorised encampments’ and ‘property owners’, with the aim of stopping nomadism in the name of ‘protecting’ property. Meanwhile other parts of the Act target protestors and seeks to protect ‘public’ property by introducing new police powers to shut down public assembly.

The Act is very much based around evict first and ask questions later. It is now a criminal offence to refuse to leave a property when asked to do so by police, occupier, or representatives of an occupier. While legal defence in having a ‘reasonable excuse’ to stay put exists, this is unlikely to ever be tested in court and therefore will struggle to set any limits on police power. It is also now an offence to return to a site within 12 months, setting up a situation where nomadic families could easily be pushed into perpetual homelessness in order to avoid criminal prosecution. Coupled with the woeful lack of recognised sites, those living nomadically are being left with an increasingly impossible and narrow existence.

Underlying these new powers is a long-term goal to strengthen property ownership and control, whilst weakening the importance of actual property use. It seems likely that landlords, investors and developers will put pressure on police to use their new powers (even though they explicitly told the government that they didn’t want or need them). But by studying the impact of these new laws and the racist histories which ground them, we can undermine the (further) empowerment of wealthy property owners.

Working with Leeds GATE over the next two years – as well as Streets Kitchen, hunt saboteurs, and environmental protestors – the Narrow Margins project will develop insights into the everyday viciousness of these new laws, whilst supporting campaigns to greater understand – and resist – the dominance of property ownership in England and Wales. In 2023, the project will start fieldwork to gather lived experiences of these new police powers on the ground, before disseminating these findings in order to produce an evidence-based response to such oppressive measures.

To find out more about the Narrow Margins project or to get involved:

Twitter: @sjburgum
Email: sam.burgum@bcu.ac.uk

Useful links:

Community Law Partnership
Friends, Families & Travellers (FFT)
Leeds GATE
Streets Kitchen