The short answer
Only on a residential park. A static caravan on a holiday park is licensed for holiday use: even where the park is open twelve months, your agreement will require you to have a main home elsewhere, and the council's site licence does not allow permanent residence. To live in one all year you need a pitch on a residential park, a home built to the residential standard BS 3632, and an agreement under the Mobile Homes Act.
On this page
The appeal is obvious: a new static caravan on a coastal park costs less than a flat in most towns, the site fee is lower than a mortgage, and the view is better. So people ask whether they can simply live in one. The answer depends entirely on what kind of park it sits on, and the difference is written into the park’s licence, not into the caravan.
Holiday parks: a holiday home, not a home
Every caravan park in England and Wales needs a site licence from the council under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960, and the licence says what the site may be used for. A holiday park is licensed for holiday use. Its planning permission and licence conditions, like North Yorkshire Council’s 2025 conditions for holiday caravan sites, allow caravans to be occupied for holidays only, often within a season of 10 to 12 months.
Your pitch agreement will say the same thing in plainer words: the caravan is for holiday and leisure use, you must have a main residence elsewhere, and the park can ask for evidence. Most parks ask for a council tax bill or similar from your main home when you buy and at renewal.
A 12-month season does not change this. It means you can visit on any day of the year; it does not mean you can live there. Owners who quietly move in full-time risk the park ending the agreement, and because the caravan sits on the park’s land, that can mean being required to remove it.
Residential parks: where you can live all year
Residential parks, often called park home sites, are licensed for permanent residential use. Living there all year is the point. The practical differences from a holiday park are:
- The home. Residential park homes are built to BS 3632, a British Standard for residential park homes that sets higher insulation and construction requirements than the European standard EN 1647 used for holiday caravans. Many residential parks will not accept an EN 1647 holiday caravan at all.
- The agreement. You buy the home and rent the pitch under a written agreement protected by the Mobile Homes Act 1983, as amended by the Mobile Homes Act 2013. GOV.UK’s park homes guidance sets out your rights: security of tenure, rules on pitch fee reviews, the right to sell on the pitch, and site rules the park must consult residents on.
- Council tax. You pay council tax on a residential park home, usually in a low band. On a holiday park you do not, because the caravan is not your home; the park pays business rates on the whole site instead.
- Services and post. A residential pitch has a postal address, mains services on individual meters, and normal access to GP registration, electoral roll and deliveries.
Residential park homes are, by most measures, the only lawful way to live in a caravan all year round on a park.
The grey areas people ask about
Twelve-month holiday parks. Open all year, but still holiday use. Fine for long stays if you keep a main home, not for residence.
Working away or between homes. Living in a holiday caravan for a few months while you sell a house is common and usually tolerated, provided you still have a main residence on paper. Living in it with no other address is not.
Caravans on private land. A static caravan in a garden, used by the family as extra space, is normally fine without planning permission or a site licence. Living in it as a separate household, or renting it out, is a different use and needs permission; see can I put a static caravan in my garden.
Subletting. Letting your holiday caravan to holidaymakers through the park is allowed on many parks, under the park’s scheme and rules. Letting it to a long-term tenant is residential use and is not.
What this means for decking
Where you can live affects what you can build. On a holiday park the deck must sit within the park’s approved materials, colours and separation distances, and some parks limit how much structure a holiday pitch may carry. On a residential park the site rules, made under the Mobile Homes Act, govern decking, porches and sheds, and residents are consulted on changes to them. Both kinds of park keep homes a minimum distance apart under their licence, normally 6 metres, and both will want fire-rated materials. The rules are set out in our guide to static caravan decking regulations, and park home decking covers the residential side.
Costs to weigh
A holiday caravan is cheaper to buy than a park home and the site fee is often lower, but it depreciates faster, cannot be your home and carries a park age limit. A residential park home costs more, holds its value better, gives you legal protection and a postal address, and comes with pitch fees that can only rise once a year under the rules on GOV.UK. If the plan is to live there, the residential route is the only one that works, and it is worth pricing the whole package: home, pitch fee, council tax, insurance and the deck you will want outside the door.
If you have found the pitch and want to price the decking, tell us where it is and we will match you with an installer who works on that kind of park. The caravan decking installers homepage starts with a postcode.