Police will be able to arrest travellers and seize caravans if they set up illegal campsites on private or public land.

Strict new laws will make it a criminal offence to occupy land with the intention of setting up home there, without getting prior permission.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has outlined proposals to give police the power to remove unwelcome visitors.

Strict new laws will make it a criminal offence to occupy land with the intention of setting up home there, without getting prior permission. Pictured: Caravans pitched on the seafront in Brighton, East Sussex, in September

Currently, trespass is considered a civil matter meaning landowners face a long and expensive legal battle to remove offenders.

'Unauthorised encampments can cause misery to those who live nearby, with reports of damage to property, noise, abuse and littering,' Ms Patel told The Sun on Sunday.

She added: 'The public want their communities protected and for the police to crack down on trespassers.

Home Secretary Priti Patel is seeking to copy the criminal offence system in the Republic of Ireland

'Our proposals aim to ensure these encampments can be challenged and removed as quickly as possible.'

In the Republic of Ireland, 'unauthorised encampment' is a criminal offence. However there is also a statutory requirement for local authorities to provide sites for travellers

Ms Patel is aiming to copy the criminal offence system and is seeking views from councils, police forces, travellers and the public on alternative measures.

Plans include the number of vehicles from six to two before police can act and allowing officers to redirect offenders to official sites.

Changes will also include increasing the time offenders are banned from returning which will be raised from three months to a year.

Meanwhile Labour has published a paper on land ownership which has been dubbed a 'hard-left charter for trespassers'.

The report outlines how the party would reverse the criminalisation of trespass and squatting.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (left) and shadow Chancellor John McDonnell (right) have previously called for anti-squatting laws to be repealed in order to give activists the right to seize private property

Therefore squatters would have the right to set up in homes and illegal campers could occupy private and public land.

Earlier this year a group of travellers set up camp on the green around Deal Castle, Kent, which sparked tension in the sleepy seaside town.

Residents described locking their doors and being kept awake into the early hours of the morning with 'loud and blaring music' when the group descended in September.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and shadow Chancellor John McDonnell have previously called for anti-squatting laws to be repealed in order to give activists the right to seize private property.

Travellers invaded the land near a 16th-century fort and pitched up their caravans outside Deal Castle, Kent, built by King Henry VIII

Travellers pitched up on the green outside Deal Castle in September where they have since moved less than half a mile away

Mr Corbyn has also endorsed a campaign that would reinstate taxpayer-funded legal aid to people accused of trespassing offences.

In September residents and business owners in Brighton, East Sussex, were left furious when 50 caravans pitched up on the seafront on a protected lawn site near to the picturesque promenade.

Aerial photographs taken when they first arrived showed the traveller site as an eyesore on the waterfront and close-up shots reveal rubbish strewn across the neatly-trimmed grass on which the vehicles were parked.

The community of travellers with 50 caravans are pictured at the site in September when they faced down police officers and council authorities by refusing to budge from their new seaside home