'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...
RSLs support L&Q in Weaver appeal
According to Inside Housing, not only is L&Q to seek permission to appeal the Court of Appeal decision to the Lords/Supreme Court (and no surprise there) but the G15 group of the largest RSLs in London are potentially backing them, including funding. To...
Austin to the Lords
Word reaches us that LB Southwark v Austin (our report on the Court of Appeal here) has been given permission by the House of Lords (or Supreme Court as it will be). It seems that the time of the tolerated trespasser troubling the Lords is not yet over, as...
The Lords on Aweys coming soon
News reaches us that the House of Lords opinions in the appeal of Aweys v Birmingham are to be handed down on 1 July (Court of Appeal report here). [Update, Moran v Manchester CC (our Court of Appeal report here) will also be handed down on the same day as...
Two homes, two MPs and an EDMO
EDMOs, a remarkable power given to local authorities under Housing Act 2004 to take control of an abandoned or unused residential property and let it (and charge the owner for most of the related costs of doing so), have been used remarkably rarely - I am...
Kay re-stated
And the question of what Doherty actually means rumbles on. Central Bedfordshire Council v Taylor & Ors [2009] EWCA Civ 613 was the Court of Appeal hearing of an appeal from a Circuit Judge's decision to make an outright possession order and, in particular,...
He can look after himself
R (Shoaib) v LB Newham [2009] All ER (D) 198 (Jun) [only available as an All ER note as yet] was a Judicial Review of a decision to terminate s.21 National Assistance Act support to Mr Shoaib. Mr Shoaib had claimed asylum in 2004. His claim had been rejected...
Would you credit it?
Some of you might have seen in the news recently some rather confused reports that HHJ Halbert at Chester County Court was dealing with various attempts by people to write off debts owed under credit agreements, see, for example, this from the BBC or this...
Take it as is or not at all
Ryan v London Borough of Islington [2009] EWCA Civ 578 concerned Ms Ryan's Right to Buy under Part V Housing Act 1985 and whether or not it had been deemed to be withdrawn. Ms Ryan was the secure tenant of a an Islington property. In January 2003, she served...
RSL meet HRA, HRA meet RSL
Well, well, well. Or perhaps well, well, oh heck. The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment in R (Weaver) v London & Quadrant Housing Trust [2009] EWCA Civ 587 and, by a majority, L&Q have lost. It will be remembered that Mrs Weaver was a...
Tales from the pink campervan
The Tenants Services Authority (the new regulatory body for RSLs and, from April 2010, local authorities) has been holding a "national conversation" with tenants, touring round in a pink campervan amongst other engagement techniques. The outcome from that,...
Pick a date, any date
It might be a small thing next to the likes of Weaver v L&Q, but Hussain v Bradford Community Housing Limited & Kauser [2009] EWCA Civ 763 is worth attention on a technical point. Hussain had a weekly periodic tenancy has joint tenant with Kauser. The weekly...