Justin Bates KC

Memorandum of Understanding between the Regulator of Social Housing and The Charity Commission for England and Wales

Memorandum of understanding between the Regulator of Social Housing and the Charity Commission. Important for charitable social landlords in England:

www.gov.uk/government/p...

This is a remarkable case which will see the Chief Constable punished for contempt! Much to unpack but huge praise due to junior counsel for the appellant and, for very different reasons, to counsel for the Chief Constable

caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewca/civ/202...

Permission to appeal to the Supreme Court has been refused in the case of Beach v South Hams DC. The case concerned accom offered to a man where the LA had accepted the full housing duty; he was in priority need as he had children, but he presented without the children, in need of emergency accom

I don't imagine they have much hope of winning in the domestic courts. I had always assumed that the plan was to exhaust domestic remedies as quickly as possible and then roll the dice in the ECtHR

As it was a Div Ct, I wonder if they'll try for a leapfrog directly to the SC?

Revealed: Labour-run council using legal loophole to serve families with no-fault evictions Exclusive: London council created an arm’s-length body to manage some of its housing stock

This isn't an exclusive. These LA-owned/controlled housing companies have existed for decades. And have many legitimate purposes (e.g. to allow social housing to be built without attracting the RTB).

www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

English councils’ temporary accommodation bill rises to £2.8bn Councils in England spent a record £2.8bn on temporary accommodation last year, with the annual bill rising by 25% as the homelessness crisis deepens.

Can't think of many better illustrations of how badly we have botched housing policy than the fact that our bill for housing homeless families (£2.8bn pa) is now higher than the money we spend each year on new affordable housing (£2.3bn)

www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/english...

Ye gods. Westminster accept a breach of s.193(2) HA 1996 and accept they have been in breach for months. They want 12 weeks to comply. The court gave them 4. They went down for a proportion of C's costs plus their own.
caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/admin/2...

Rayner says in her resignation letter: "The challenges of government are nothing compared to the challenge of putting food on the table and getting a roof over our head when I brought up kids working as a home help."

Absolutely. A shame to lose that perspective from the cabinet table.

The long tradition of the position of Sec of State for housing being a cursed one continues.

Ooh - that's a very important discovery.

This isn’t a hard one. Right to Buy massively benefited one generation of tenants (and good luck to them) but at the expense of subsequent generations of people in housing need. And the consequential homelessness costs are destroying the finances of local councils to this day.

It's so obviously A Good Thing that it won't happen.

Now there is a vacancy... time for the Karen Buck bat signal?

Made it into the new Private Eye @privateeyenews.bsky.social Now I can retire.

London Residentials Ltd v London Borough of Newham: [2025] UKUT 201 (AAC) Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision by Judge Perez on 22 June 2025.

That rarest of beasts - the 2nd case from the UT on the duties on letting agents to publish details of fees.

www.gov.uk/administrati...

Statutory homelessness in England: January to March 2025

One (small) bit of good news on homelessness in England - number of families in B&B has dropped by over 30% (March 2025 as against March 2024). Applications still going up. Households in TA still going up.

www.gov.uk/government/s...

English regs www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/89...

Welsh regs www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2025/894...

This is silly. Eligibility should be the same across E, W and Scotland. Won't someone think of the local connection referral implications?!

England and Wales have diverged on eligibility for homelessness assistance and allocations.
Intention appears to have been to catch same people (Brits fleeing conflict in Middle East). E has a general category (anyone leaving any country pusuant to gov advice) W has limited it to identified areas.

Strengthening leaseholder protections over charges and services: consultation

Full service charge protection consultation here 👇🏻

www.gov.uk/government/c...

Strengthening leaseholder protections over charges and services: consultation

The leasehold reform paper is out. Essentially, a mixture of questions around implementing the service charge / management aspects of the 2024 Act and then questions about wider reform. This is a serious piece of work

www.gov.uk/government/c...

Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament Information from UK Parliament on written questions & answers, written statements and daily reports.

Strengthening leaseholder consumer rights

"Following the consultation, we intend to bring the various measures into force as quickly as possible. To end the feudal leasehold system for good"

@matthewpennycookmp.bsky.social

#Leaseholdscandal

questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-stat...

I think if you asked people in the social housing sector you'd get a wildly different picture. Most of what they've done has gone down extremely well so far. But the impacts of these policies and the extra funding are long term, not generating immediate changes for the better.

Not on Westlaw yet but important homelessness case - s.189A assessments are challenged by JR, not by ss.202/204 review/appeal.

www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWH...

Ooh! A very good change to Part 6, HA 1996 - from 10 July 2025, a local authority cannot apply "local connection" tests under Part 6 to certain categories of domestic abuse survivor nor certain care leavers

www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/70...

Homelessness and Social Housing Allocations… - Landmark Chambers Landmark Chambers is a leading barristers’ chambers based in London, UK. Our team of experienced barristers provides specialist advice and representation…

The abolition of priority need and the concept of intentional homelessness! Come and join us as we talk through these major changes to homelessness law in Wales.

www.landmarkchambers.co.uk/events/homel...

One date on the horizon I didn't know about before reading this was 2039: the year that the Flood Re scheme which splits the risk of flood between insurers and government ends. If it's not replaced, "It’s quite possible they’ll just withdraw from insuring in certain locations."

That sort of career move doesn't really exist in housing law in the way that I understand to be more common at the tax Bar. You do get people with previous housing experience, but usually as a housing officer or land law uni lecturer, which doesn't help with substantive law or procedure