10th February 2016
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HOUSING LAW NEWS & POLICY ISSUES

Lettings to migrants
On 1 February the DCLG published an updated version of its Code of Practice for landlords, homeowners and letting agents affected by the introduction of right to rent immigration checks. For the Code of Practice, click here

Illegal eviction prosecutions
The Local Government Association has published details of recent prosecutions by local authorities for illegal evictions by rogue landlords. The LGA is calling for the legal process to be accelerated. For details, click here

Rough sleeping: Wales
The Welsh Government has published an annual report which includes information on the estimated number of persons sleeping rough over a two week period and the number of persons observed sleeping rough. Local authorities have estimated that between 2nd and 15th November 2015 240 persons were sleeping rough across Wales. For the statistical release, click here

Housing Benefit cap
The Department for Work and Pensions has published official statistics on households that have had their Housing Benefit capped from 15 April 2013 (when the benefit cap was introduced) to November 2015 (the latest available figures). It includes ‘cumulative and point-in-time figures’ on the number of capped households as well as information on households who have moved off the benefit cap. The figures show that 69,900 households have had their Housing Benefit capped. As at November 2015, 48,900 households (70%) who have (previously) had their Housing Benefit capped are no longer subject to the cap. For the statistical report, click here

Housing Benefit subsidy circular
On 4 February 2016 the Department for Work and Pensions published Housing Benefit circular SI/2016 giving details of each local authority’s government contribution and overall expenditure limit for Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) for 2016/17. For the circular, click here

‘Spare room subsidy’ (1)
The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper which provides information on which claimants are affected by the reduction in Housing Benefit when under-occupying a social rented home. The paper summarises some of the key legal challenges to the under-occupation deduction from Housing Benefit including Rutherford & Ors, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions [2016] EWCA Civ 29. For the briefing, click here

‘Spare room subsidy’ (2)
The Supreme Court has granted permission to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s judgment Rutherford & Ors, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions [2016] EWCA Civ 29. A three-day hearing is likely to begin on 29 February. Judgment is expected to be reserved after the last day's hearing and a date for judgment will be announced later.

Private renting: tenants’ deposits
Research by money.co,uk and the Cebr has found that 15% of private landlords are sitting on an estimated £514m of unprotected deposits (ie not placed in a valid deposit protection scheme). For more information, click here

Private renting: responsibility for infestations
The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper providing an overview of the factors to consider when deciding who is responsible for tackling infestations in privately rented housing, together with a summary of the powers available to local authorities. For the briefing paper, click here

Homelessness
On 8 February 2016 Homelessness Link announced the launch of Housing First England: a collaborative project aimed at improving the lives of people experiencing entrenched or repeat homelessness. For details of the Housing First model, click here

Supported housing
The President of the Chartered Institute of Housing, Geraldine Howley, has called for supported housing (which caters for vulnerable people such as people with disabilities and victims of domestic violence) to be exempt from government plans to cap housing benefit for social housing at Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rates (the amount of housing benefit people living in the private rented sector are able to claim). The comments were made in Ms Howley’s speech at CIH’s Presidential Dinner. To read the speech, click here

Right to buy
It is reported that the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham is offering its housing tenants a £40,000 cash payment not to buy their council house in a bid to protect its housing stock. For a report in LocalGov, click here

Housing policy (1)
A report by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research examines the problems in the UK housing market (including the consequences for housing availability of the re-classification of housing associations) and considers fundamental reforms to housing taxation and housing finance. For the report, click here

Housing policy (2)
The Local Government Association states that at least 80,000 social rented homes could be lost in England and Wales by 2020 unless councils are given greater powers to build new homes. The LGA commissioned a report from Savills which estimates such a drop in affordable council rented housing would shift spending from bricks to benefits by driving up the housing benefit bill by £210 million by the end of the decade as more families move into the more expensive private rented sector. For more details, click here . For BBC News coverage of the report, click here

Start Spreading The News
If your organisation has a success story such as the effective use of legislation or a new policy or practice initiative that may be of interest to other Housing Professionals then please send details to info@housinglawweek.co.uk so that we can consider including it in a future issue of HLW and bring it to the attention of fellow practitioners.
HOUSING LAWS IN THE PIPELINE

Housing and Planning Bill
This is a UK Government Bill about social and private rented housing, rogue landlords, estate agents, planning and compulsory purchase. It has completed all its House of Commons stages and is now passing through the House of Lords. The Bill had its second reading in the House of Lords on 26 January 2016. For coverage of the second reading debate in Local Government Lawyer, click here The Bill entered Committee on 9 February 2016. For a copy of the Bill as presented in the Lords, click here For the Explanatory Notes, click here For the official Impact Assessment of the Bill, click here  To follow the progress of the Bill, click here . To read the debates at all stages of the Bill, click here. For the House of Lords Library research briefing on the Bill, click here

Welfare Reform and Work Bill
This UK Government Bill makes provision about: the benefit cap; social security and tax credits; loans for mortgage interest; and social housing rents. It has completed all its House of Commons stages and is now passing through the House of Lords. The Bill underwent line by line examination during the final day of report stage on 27 January. The third reading took place on 9 February 2016. For the Bill, as amended on Report, click here  For the Explanatory Notes for that version of the Bill, click here To follow the progress of the Bill, click here. For the documents relating to the Bill (including several impact assessments), click here 

Immigration Bill
This UK Government Bill would create four new offences to target those landlords and agents who repeatedly fail to comply with the ‘right-to-rent scheme’ by letting to tenants subject to immigration restrictions or who fail to evict tenants who they know or have reasonable cause to believe are disqualified from renting as a result of their immigration status. The Bill has completed its House of Commons stages and has now moved into the House of Lords and entered Committee on 18 January 2016. For minutes of proceedings of the fourth sitting of Committee on 3 February, click here For a copy of the Bill as presented in the Lords, click here  For the Explanatory Notes for that version of the Bill, click here  For the official Impact Assessment, click here  To follow the progress of the Bill, click here 

Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Bill 2015
This is a Government Bill introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 7 October 2015. For a copy of the Bill, the Explanatory Notes and related official documents, and to follow the progress of the Bill, click here For the final Business and Regulatory Impact Assessment on the Bill, click here For the Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment on the Bill, click here For the final Equality Impact Assessment for the Bill, click here For the Briefing on the Bill produced by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, click here The Bill completed Stage 1 on 22 January 2016. For a report on the debate, click here Committee consideration of the Bill at Stage 2 will take place over February 2016, with the Stage 3 Debate expected to take place mid-March 2016. For the evidence submitted to that Committee by the Chartered Institute of Housing (Scotland), click here

Housing (Amendment) Bill
This is a Bill introduced in the Assembly by the Northern Ireland Executive. It would make provision for the better sharing of information relating to empty homes or to anti-social behaviour and provide for the registration of certain loans as statutory charges. For a copy of the Bill, click here For the explanatory memorandum (listed under ‘All associated documents and links’), click here  For a commentary on the Bill, click here The Bill has completed its Committee Stage. For the Committee report, click here For an official report of the Consideration stage, click here To follow progress of the Bill, click here

Houses in Multiple Occupation Bill
This is a Bill introduced in the Assembly by the Northern Ireland Executive.  It would make provision for and in connection with the licensing of houses in multiple occupation in Northern Ireland. For a copy of the Bill, click here For the explanatory memorandum, click here  To follow the progress of the Bill, click here A Second Stage debate took place in the Assembly on 7 December 2015. For the record of that debate, click here  The Bill now stands referred to the Committee for Social Development and that Stage has been extended to 12 February 2016.

Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Bill
This is a Private Members’ Bill introduced by Karen Buck MP. It would amend the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 to require that residential rented accommodation is provided and maintained in a state of fitness for human habitation. For a copy of the Bill, click here   It had its Second Reading on 16 October 2015 but was talked-out. It is again listed for a Second Reading, now scheduled for 11 March 2016. For details on the (unlikely) future progress of the Bill, click here For a lawyer’s commentary on its content, click here For the Shelter Blog on the Bill and its importance, click here For a commentary from Dr Stephen Battersby, click here For the House of Commons Library Briefing on the Bill, click here  For the MP’s own perspective on her Bill being talked-out, click here For the response of the MP who talked-out the Bill, click here

Local Government Finance (Tenure Information) Bill
This is a Private Members’ Bill introduced by Dame Angela Watkinson MP. It would amend the Local Government Finance Act 1992 to make provision for collecting information about tenure and the details of private landlords. For a copy of the Bill, click here  It had a First Reading on 24 June 2015 and its Second Reading is to be on a date yet to be announced. For details on the progress of the Bill, click here For the Briefing Paper prepared by the House of Commons Library, click here

Crown Tenancies Bill
This is a Private Members’ Bill introduced by Mark Pawsey MP but which now has UK Government support. It would provide that Crown tenancies (mainly of properties owned by Government Departments) may be assured tenancies for the purposes of the Housing Act 1988, subject to certain exceptions, and would modify the assured tenancies regime in relation to certain Crown tenancies (including by provision of a new ground for possession).  It had a First Reading on 24 June 2015 and its Second Reading has been re-scheduled (again) for 26 February 2016. For a copy of the Bill, click here For the Explanatory Notes, click here  For details on the progress of the Bill, click here For the House of Commons Library Briefing note that has been prepared for the Second Reading, click here

 
NEW HOUSING CASES

R (VC) v North Somerset Council (Equality and Human Rights Commission intervening) CO/3801/2015
North Somerset Council’s allocation policy’s “local connection” requirement was challenged by way of a judicial review application by an Irish Traveller on a number of grounds. These included that the council had failed to pay proper regard to equality objectives pursuant to s. 149 of the Equality Act 2010  and that the Council’s “local  connection” requirement was indirectly discriminatory in relation to Gypsies and Travellers and unjustifiably so. The case was supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The case settled on the day before trial and Mr Justice Collins approved an order by which the Council undertook to place the claimant on its housing register and to review its allocations scheme (specifically with reference to s.149 of the Equality Act 2010).  The judge also ordered the Council to pay the claimant’s costs of the judicial review claim. Further details are to be found on the Garden Court Chambers website here.

R (Edwards and Others) v Birmingham City Council [2016] EWHC 173 (Admin.)
Mr Justice Hickinbottom has dismissed applications for judicial review by the first two claimants and refused the third and fourth claimants permission to proceed. Each of the claimants contended that their respective applications to Birmingham City Council (the largest housing authority in the country) for housing as homeless persons were dealt with unlawfully and that there had been systemic failings so that they had been denied their statutory rights to have their situation investigated properly and be given interim accommodation pending completion of inquiries. For the full judgment click here

Derwent Housing Association Limited v Taylor [2015] EWCA (Civ) 19 January (unreported)
This judgment of the Court of Appeal addresses the question of whether there is a continued right of occupation of one spouse (Mr Taylor)  who remains in a rented matrimonial home after the other spouse has served notice to terminate the assured non-shorthold tenancy which had been taken out in Mrs Taylor’s sole name.  Whilst the notice to terminate was defective the landlord, Derwent Housing Association Ltd, accepted it but Mr Taylor refused to leave and so Derwent issued possession proceedings which Mr Taylor defended. For a summary of, and commentary on, the first instance decision and the Court of Appeal judgment click here

Failure to licence prosecution
Newham Council has reported that a private landlord has been convicted for failure to license a property under its Private Sector licensing scheme which was introduced in January 2013. The private landlord was also found guilty of supplying false or misleading information to the Council.  The Council’s investigations showed that the landlord who had acquired the property under the right to buy had been letting it since at least 2008.  Magistrates sentenced the landlord to a fine of £13,000, costs of £3491 and a victim surcharge of £150.  For further details click here

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HOUSING LAW CONSULTATIONS

Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights is holding a joint pre-appointment hearing of the Government’s preferred candidate for the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) with the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee in March 2016. By 18 February 2016, the Committees welcome submissions on the following: the effectiveness of the EHRC and the role of the Chair; the most important issues the Chair of the EHRC is likely to face during their term; and the most important qualities needed by the Chair of the EHRC. To send a written submission, click here

 National Planning Policy
On 22 December 2015, the UK government launched a consultation seeking views on specific changes to national planning policy to support delivery of new homes, including low cost homes for first time buyers. The closing date for comments is 22 February 2016. For a copy of the consultation paper, click here. For the online response form, click here

 
HOUSING LAW ARTICLES & PUBLICATIONS

Recent Developments in Housing Law Jan Luba QC & Nic Madge [2015] December / [2016] January issue of Legal Action magazine. Available in print and on-line for Legal Action subscribers. For the latest issue, click here For back-issues, click here

Details still needed on social housing benefit limits Kate Webb [2016] Shelter Policy Blog 3 February. To read the article, click here

Poor housing is bad for your health Dawn Foster [2016] Guardian Housing Network 4 February. To read the article, click here

EEA nationals and social assistance Riccardo Calzavara [2016] Local Government Lawyer 4 February. To read the article, click here

An attack on social housing is also an attack on older people Dawn Foster [2016] Guardian Housing Network 5 February. To read the article, click here

‘Pay to stay’ trap will force working families out of council homes Toby Helm [2016] The Observer 6 February. To read the article, click here

Rents continue to grind upwards. Incomes are being left behind John Bibby [2016] Shelter Policy Blog 8 February. To read the article, click here

If we want to solve the housing crisis, we must answer these three questions Paul Mason [2016] Guardian 8 February. To read the article, click here

Young children deprived of homes pay a terrible mental price Peter Fonagy [2016] Guardian Housing Network 8 February. To read the article, click here

 
THE HOUSING LAW DIARY

18 February 2016          
Deadline for submissions concerning the appointment of a Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (see Housing Law Consultations above)

22 February 2016          
Close of consultation on the national planning policy (see Housing Law Consultations above)

26 February 2016        
Adjourned Commons Second Reading of the Crown Tenancies Bill (see Housing Laws in the Pipeline above)

 
RECRUITMENT

Housing Options Officer (Private Rented)
Royal Borough of Greenwich

Grade: S02
Salary: £29,727 - £31,368
Full time: 35 hours per week

This post provides housing options advice, assessment and support to people and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The role includes office based assessment as well as some work at court and site visits.

The successful candidates will have a good knowledge of housing and homelessness legislation. They will need to be committed to joint working and have a person-centred approach to assessment, and have the flexibility to work in a fast-paced and dynamic service.  They will work closely with colleagues in a number of departments to achieve the best possible outcomes for customers.

For further details click here
Closing Date: 19th February 2016
Interview Date: 1 March 2016

 
 
 

Housing Law Caseworker Vacancy

Sternberg Reed is a well established Lexcel Accredited law firm with offices in Essex and London A vacancy has arisen for a Caseworker to join our Housing Law Department to support and assist the fee earners in the preparation and conduct of cases. The role will include undertaking administrative tasks.

This position will be based in our Barking office but the successful candidate may be expected to work from any of our other offices as and when required

The job would offer excellent experience of working in a busy legal practice for a Paralegal or Law Graduate who has passed the LPC and has a keen interest in making a career in this area of law.

The successful candidate will have the following attributes:

  • Previous experience of working in Housing Law
  • Solid IT, drafting and research skills
  • Excellent communication & presentation skills - over the telephone and in person
  • Good time management
  • Ability to handle an extensive and varied workload
  • Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines

Please apply to: julie.young@sternberg-reed.co.uk with your CV and a covering letter stating why you are interested in this role and how your experience and skills match the requirements for this role.

We are an Equal Opportunities Employer

 
 
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