The re-design of the administration of housing benefit has sought to address the scheme's complexity in recent years - the local housing allowance is a particular example of this re-design, with the shift to flat rate payments according to household size. ...
Pots and kettles
I've been reading Morag McDermont's recent book on the history of the housing association sector and the National Housing Federation, Governing, Independence and Expertise: The Business of Housing Associations. It's a cracking read and much recommended. It...
Let’s all move to … Wales*
Forgive the slight delay in picking this up, but the Welsh Assembly has issued a consultation on a new Code of Guidance on allocations and homelessness (closing date 30.06.2011; comments to Affordablehousing.actionteam@wales.gsi.gov.uk or by post). By any...
Well, that’s embarrassing
You know how when you search for something that isn't there on NL, it comes up with that (quite annoying) "well, that's embarrassing" logo? Well, I searched last night for Vilvarasa v Harrow LBC [2010] EWCA Civ 1278 but couldn't find it. Then, it struck me...
Grrrr
First of all, a guilty secret: I love Silk, the BBC show. It makes my Tuesday nights. It is completely and utterly implausible but take it for what it is - fiction and drama - and it's a great show. After a late Supper, my partner called me and said there...
A (further) symbolic consultation
Readers of my previous notes of the "consultation" exercises undertaken by the coalition government will readily appreciate that I am not the best person to write about a further symbolic consultation, being lead by DCLG, on what it terms "burdens" (indeed,...
This is a local town for local people …
Forgive the slight delay, but DCLG published their summary of responses to their Consultation on Local Decisions: A Fairer Future for Social Housing (which we discussed here) on 28 Feb. The outcome of the consultation appears to be, um, full steam ahead on...
Turning european?
The UKSC judgment in Birmingham CC v Frisby, Leeds CC v Hall, Hounslow LBC v Powell is due on Wednesday 23 February (court Room 1 at 9.45). The background in the CA and the foreground (Pinnock) have been discussed in previous posts (here and here) to whet...
Yeah but, no but …
Vicky Pollard continues the Chief's west country theme, albeit somewhat stretched, to demonstrate the Con-Dem approach to consultation about their affordable rent tenancy regime (ie what consultation?). We now have more detail courtesy of the HCA and a...
The brilliant Baroness
Yemshaw v Hounslow LBC [2011] UKSC 3 While my NL colleagues are off partying at a secret location for lunch, I've managed to steal a few precious minutes from an appallingly tight deadline (Sinead: if you're reading this, it'll be there, honest) to write a...
Localism Bill published
The Localism Bill was published yesterday. I suppose it might be seen as an exciting time for the housing sector - somebody described it as a potential "paradigm shift" at an event I was at last week - but, whether or not that is correct (and it could yet...
HHSRS, overcrowding and homelessness
I could bore for England about the significance of the HHSRS, overcrowding and their relationship with the definition of homelessness, as well as the significance of the reworked notion of "reasonable to continue to occupy" by the HL in Moran, having worked...