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Leading campsite and outdoor accommodation provider, Pitchup.com, is supporting a proposal to bring back a ruling which previously allowed landowners in England and Wales to set up temporary pop-up campsites for 56 days during peak season with no need for planning permission.

The 56-day Permitted Development Ruling (PDR) was first established in the June 2020 to help rural economies recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and to help British people enjoy holidays at home while international travel was restricted. The PDR ended on 31 December 2021, and has reverted back to its original limit of 28 days, but British Member of Parliament for Scarborough and Whitby, Robert Goodwill, is urging the Government to bring it back for summer 2022 to help boost the country’s rural economy.

Pop-up campsites of this type generated an estimated £25 million for the UK's rural economy in 2021, according to figures from Pitchup.com, with more than half of that money being spent with local businesses, meaning entire communities felt a financial uplift. Dan Yates, founder of Pitchup.com, has given his full backing to Robert Goodwill MP, and joined him in urging the UK’s Housing Secretary Michael Gove to reinstate the 56-day ruling.

Dan said: “The rural economy has benefited hugely from PDR being extended to 56 days. But this isn’t just about the economy, it is about people – small rural businesses, farmers, and communities doing what they could to survive a really difficult time. The 56 day ruling was instrumental in that. It enabled landowners and farmers to set up campsites for long enough to make a real impact on their own businesses and those around them. It kept a lot of businesses afloat during the pandemic, especially those in the tourism and hospitality sectors, that otherwise might have folded. To take it away now could undo all that good work.

“Not only that, many holidaymakers, still wary of flying, will be in need of a restful break in the beautiful English countryside. Keeping PDR at 28 days will deny many of them that opportunity.”

Robert Goodwill MP recently told Parliament that the 56-day ruling worked well in 2021 and should return. He said: “Twenty-eight days isn’t really enough but 56 days would cover the summer holiday and peak season for camping and caravanning.

“If we don't do this, people will start camping on other land without permission and we already have a problem with camper vans parking in lay bys and emptying chemical toilets where they shouldn't.”

To help further support prospective campsite owners, Pitchup.com has a handy tool on its website that helps people calculate what their potential earnings could be, based on data it has collated from the last two years.