Mike Freer calls for squatting to be made illegal

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8377938/Eastern-Europeans-praise-Britains-lax-squatting-law.html

Freer says :-

“I will happily back the campaign to make squatting a criminal offence. It’s causing untold misery and nuisance to home owners and neighbours alike. It needs to be treated like breaking and entering – what they are doing should be illegal.” 

 As we might expect from Mike Freer, a typically ill thought out pronouncement, which shows little appreciation of English law. Whilst I think most people would agree that it is ridiculous that someone can seemingly nick your house whilst you've gone to the shops, anyone familiar with property law will realise that sometimes squatting can happen inadvertently. If Mike Freer makes this on a par with breaking and entering, many old ladies who accidently plant a hedge in the wrong place could end up being criminalised. Generally property law works pretty well. If Freer had said "I will back legislation to allow fast track eviction of squatters where a building is currently in use by someone else" he'd have gained massive support. Instead he plans a bill which is completely unworkable and will have all sorts of unforeseen implications. I once asked a Tory MP who was a qualified barrister why Margaret Thatcher had never outlawed squatting. His response was that it was completely impractical and would lead to a legal nightmare. He also pointed out exactly who the biggest squatters of the lot are !

I wonder if Freer actually bothered to discuss his scheme with someone who knew what they were talking about. Sadly like many of Mike Freers marvellous ideas, this one will fail due to lack of attention to detail.