Just a brief note, partly about Barnet's Allocation policy and partly about the surprising way that things can develop from a blog post. In September 2014, I noted that Barnet's proposed changes to its allocation policy had the effect of excluding...
All the blog posts, most recent first
The Long and Winding Road
The facts in Nzolameso v Westminster CC are pretty unremarkable, but the effects of the Court of Appeal's judgement are likely to reverberate through every new homelessness application, especially in the London area. Ms N is a parent of five...
Separated families and bedroom tax
Cotton & Ors, R (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions & Ors [2014] EWHC 3437 (Admin) This was the Liberty backed judicial review of the bedroom tax regulations on the basis that the regulations amounted to an...
A very unlawful eviction
(Finally) AA v London Borough of Southwark [2014] EWHC 500 (QB) This High Court judgment is remarkable in many ways, most of them worrying. It was the result of a six day hearing, with Southwark putting Kelvin Rutledge QC up against Mr AA in person...
Christopher Chope MP makes a generous offer
The Justice Select Committee heard oral evidence on housing legal aid after LASPO today, 21 October 2014. Representatives from HLPA, Shelter and Garden Court Chambers gave evidence. The recording is here, if the video below doesn't work. In the...
Etcetera.
A few bits. There are four new FTT bedroom tax decisions on the FTT page, including one from Manchester where subsidence was classed as a 'natural catastrophe' for the purposes of continuity of property for the 1996 exemption. There are two room...
Should auld acquaintance…
In which we revisit a couple of old friends. Mr Gopee of Barons Finance (and many other companies) continues to fare poorly in the RCJ. He apparently sought permission to appeal a couple of orders by HHJ Mackie QC, granting permission to appeal out...
Bedroom Tax: Upper Tribunal on Article 14
Following my plaintive cry here, I now have copies of the two Upper Tribunal judgments from Scotland referred to by the DWP. And, while the judgments do do something rather more and rather different to the outcomes suggested in the DWP Circular,...
Downloadable archives
Having previously suggested the possibility of Ebook versions of our archives, I have been technologically frustrated in bringing this about (in the sense that it is probably do-able but would take up a large amount of my time and an investment in...
Not enough information: Bedroom tax and disability discrimination
[Update 6/10/14 - got the judgments now. Detailed comment here] This is frustrating! A DWP circular HB U4/2014 contains an annex with notes on four Scottish Upper Tribunal bedroom tax decisions. Two of them I have already addressed here, but the...
The way we live now.
This is not exactly a housing law post, though the operation of housing law runs through it at an angle. It is more of a snapshot of the present reality of social and private housing, at least in London, traced through the history of a remarkable...
Technical hitch for Internet Explorer users
[Edit 23/09/14 - temporary fix - use the print button now added at the bottom of each post. This works safely.] Sorry to anyone already affected by this, but it appears that trying to print from this site in Internet Explorer to a laser printer...