Pitch fee uprating under the Mobile Homes Act 1983 - Proposal to change from Retail Price Index to Consumer Price Index.

We asked for views on a proposal to change the index for pitch fee uprating under the Mobile Homes Act 1983 from Retail Price Index to the Consumer Price Index, and the impacts of moving away from the current index.

We recieved 171 responses to the consultation, with a particularly strong response from residents of mobile homes. There was a substantial consensus from residents and local authorities in support of the proposals. Views from the smaller number of site operators who responded were mixed. Analysis of the consultation responses is in the Consultation Report on Pitch Fee Uprating Under the Mobile Homes Act 1983. 

We have taken account of the evidence gathered in the consultation and brought forward legislation to change the presumed basis of pitch fee uprating under the Mobile Homes Act 1983 from RPI to CPI for both existing and future contracts. We also made provision for a further change to the Mobile Homes Act 1983 so that the statistical basis for uprating pitch fees can be amended by secondary rather than primary legislation in the future. 

Changes introduced

Provisions for the RPI to CPI change were included at section 61 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 6 November 2025. 

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2026 was subsequently laid in the Scottish Parliament on 2 March 2026. For residential mobile homes, this sets a commencement date, of 1 April 2026, for the measures within sections 61 and 62.

Section 61 changes the percentage presumption for uprating residential mobile home pitch fees in Scotland from the Retail Prices Index (RPI) to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). The change will affect pitch fee reviews for notices due to be issued by residential mobile home site owners on or after the date these provisions come into force, on 1 April 2026. Where a notice for a pitch fee review is due to be served before 1 April 2026, the review for this year will still be carried out under the old law, which means it is based on the RPI percentage presumption.

It also makes provision to improve protection for residents should a site owner seek to undertake activity to compensate for the loss of income as a result of the change to indexation.

The aim of the changes is to ensure that protections relating to pitch fee uprating for owners of residential mobile homes remain fair, appropriate and in line with the development of statistical measures.

Section 62 makes a technical change to modify the meaning of “protected site” in section 5(1) of the Mobile Homes Act 1983 so that it has the same meaning as in Part 1 of the Caravans Sites Act 1968. This in effect removes references to gypsy and traveller sites that are no longer needed in consequence of previous changes to the law in regard to these sites.

Section 61(2) is not commenced by this order but will be included in the next set of commencement regulations. It will introduce an order-making power for the Scottish Ministers to change the inflation index in future by secondary legislation, to facilitate timely changes as required. We will provide a further update on progress in due course.