Tag Archive for 'Allocation'

Housing Benefit limits

By NL on 28/06/2010. 22 Comments

You’ve probably already seen this, but new upper limits on housing benefit rates are to be introduced from next April (2011).

For a three bed house, the upper limit will be £340 per week
For a four bed house, the upper limit will be £400 per week

LHA will be limited to between £250 and £400 a week depending on property size. LHA rates will be set using the bottom 30 per cent of rates instead of the median and they will be linked to the consumer prices index rather than the retail prices index, leading to smaller increases.

In London, this is likely to have a very significant impact … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, Benefits, FLW article, Housing law - All and secure-tenancy. Tags: , , .

Without exception

By J on 15/09/2009. 0 Comments

R (Joseph) v LB Newham [2008] EWHC 1637 (Admin)

Blanket policies are unlawful. A first year law undergraduate could tell you that. Any lawyer or public body which didn’t know that would deserve public humilliation, probably involving being slapped across the face with a fish. Even a cursory flick through a public law text book would give you ample support for this elementary proposition of public law.

It is, therefore, something of a surprise to see Stadlen J dealing with… a blanket policy.

Mr and Mrs Joseph are secure tenants of the London Borough of Newham. At some time in the distant past, he was overpaid certain monies (probably … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, FLW case note and Housing law - All. Tags: , , .

Draft Allocations Code of Guidance

By Dave on 05/08/2009. 0 Comments

DCLoG which, by all accounts, was cockahoop over Ahmad has issued a new draft Code of Guidance on allocations for consultation: Fair and Flexible.  This amends parts of the 2002 Code and the 2008 Code on CBL.  The new draft Code is obviously aimed at correcting the old Codes in the light of Ahmad, which it does at paras 52-81 (also dealing with local lettings policies).  But the draft is also designed to deal with the BNP brigade and how to counter the “false perceptions” and “myths” about local allocations schemes through information provision, local consultation before and after the creation of the new policy, simplicity over complexity … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, Housing law - All and secure-tenancy. Tags: , , .

Allocations policies: Publication

By Dave on 04/08/2009. 3 Comments

In R (Boolen) v Barking and Dagenham LBC reported on Lawtel, the Claimant applied for judicial review of the the council’s allocation scheme on the basis that

(1) the council had implemented a “local connection” criterion into its prioritisation decisions after bidding had ended, but that local connection criterion was not set out in the policy though “it was averred to”.  It was argued that the lack of publicity given to that criterion and its consequential unavailability to the public meant that the policy was unlawful.  Indeed, on the facts, it appears that the Claimant only found out about the criterion after she had been top bidder for properties and … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, FLW case note, Housing law - All and secure-tenancy. Tags: , , .

The good, the bad and the aesthetically challenged

By NL on 29/06/2009. 0 Comments

‘Building Britain’s Future’, a broad Government policy direction document, has been put out and must be regarded as an early draft of the Labour election manifesto. As people may well have heard, social housing and the allocation thereof features in the plan.

If you skip to page 82 of the full PDF, the suggestions are laid out in tantalising vagueness. Given the ‘to be announced’ nature of most of the contents (and, one presumes, the election based provisionality of much of it), what is actually in there?

The good -

we will consult on reforming the council housing finance system and allow local authorities to keep all the proceeds

… Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, Housing law - All and secure-tenancy. Tags: , , , .

Searching around …

By Dave on 20/04/2009. 0 Comments

NL set a kind of challenge.  There hasn’t been anything interesting I could find, but there is a kind of footnote to allocations by way of a circular issued by CLG under section 169, Housing Act 1996, to honour a commitment made to members of the armed services and to give guidance on the application of s 315, Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (which redrew the local connection boundary in respect of service personnel). Para 5 of the Circular says that service personnel who are seriously injured or disabled in action should be given a “high priority” in recognition of their service. And para 8 says that where authorities use … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation and Housing law - All. Tags: , .

Ahmad: the cup's half empty

By Dave on 04/03/2009. 12 Comments

As they say in American tv shows: ohmigod. R(Ahmad) v LB Newham [2009] UKHL 14 is now available and the Lords have done a pretty good job at destroying the jurisprudence built up by the High Court and Court of Appeal in Part 6 cases. The headlines are: (a) Newham’s scheme was not irrational by failing to have a device which determines priorities between households in the s. 167(2) reasonable preference groups; and (b) it was not unlawful by allocating up to 5% pa of properties to existing tenants who apply for a transfer and might not have a reasonable preference. But it’s more than this, so much more, because … Read the full post

Posted in Allocation, FLW case note, Housing law - All and secure-tenancy. Tags: , , , , .
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