26th January 2022
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HOUSING LAW NEWS & POLICY ISSUES
 

New online service to track remediation of high risk buildings
On 20 January 2022 the DLUHC announced that under the new Leaseholder and Resident Service, those living in tower blocks will have access to updates on the status of their building’s application to the government’s Building Safety Fund. This will help leaseholders to understand where their building is in the process. The tailored service is designed to speed up the process of removing unsafe non-ACM cladding from the highest risk buildings, forcing building owners to be more transparent, and exposing those who have failed to take action to make their buildings safe. To access the service, click here.

Standards in social housing
On 18 January 2022 the DLUHC announced a review of staff training and qualifications to improve social housing services, ensure residents’ complaints are dealt with effectively, and make sure homes are of good quality. The review will seek landlords’, residents’ and trade bodies’ recommendations and will also consider whether additional training is required to improve the service to residents. For more information, click here.

Combustible cladding manufacturers
On 23 January 2022 Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, threatened a UK trading ban on manufacturers of combustible cladding and insulation unless they agree by March 2022 to pay to fix dangerous housing. The warning was included in a letter from Mr Gove to the Construction Products Association. For the letter, click here.

Right to rent checks
On 19 January 2022 the Home Office announced that new digital identity checking technology which the Home Office says will make it quicker, safer and more convenient for landlords to carry out right to rent checks, will be introduced from 6 April 2022. From that date certified identity service providers (IDSPs) will be able to use Identification Document Validation Technology (IDVT) to conduct right to rent checks on behalf of British and Irish citizens. IDSPs will allow people to verify their identity remotely and prove their eligibility to work or rent, which the Government says will reduce the costs of recruitment and letting processes. For more information, click here.

Building safety funding inquiry launched by Commons Committee
On 19 January 2022 the House of Commons Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee launched an inquiry into building safety and issues relating to funding and remediation. The Committee’s inquiry will examine the announcements made by Secretary of State Michael Gove in his statement to the House of Commons on 10 January 2022. For more details including the full inquiry terms of reference, click here. For the announcement by Michael Gove, click here.

Successful applicants for LGA Housing Advisers’ Programme announced
On 18 January 2022 the Local Government Association announced the 30 successful projects, supporting 90 councils, for its Housing Advisers Programme 2021/22 (HAP), an innovative scheme to help councils overcome housing challenges in their local areas, address the housing crisis and meet the housing needs of local communities. For a full list of this year’s success applicants and more information about the programme, click here.

Judicial Review and Courts Bill: Progress of the Bill
On 21 January 2022 the House of Commons Library published a paper summarising the amendments made to the Judicial Review and Courts Bill in Committee and the main issues that were debated. The Bill would reform rules affecting judicial reviews and bring in changes to the court system. It was considered by a Public Bill Committee over 11 sittings between 2 and 18 November 2021 and is due to have its Commons report stage on 25 January 2022. For the paper, click here.

Private rental growth measures: January to December 2021
On 20 January 2022 the Office for National Statistics published a comparison of growth in the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) with other measures of private rental growth. It found that the IPHRP, as a measure of the stock of private rents, is a more stable index compared with the newly let private measures. The IPHRP for December 2021, published on 19 January 2022, showed that:

  • Private rental prices paid by tenants in the UK rose by 1.8 per cent in the 12 months to December 2021, up from 1.7 per cent in the 12 months to November 2021.
  • Private rental prices grew by 1.8 per cent in England, 1.5 per cent in Wales and 2.3 per cent in Scotland in the 12 months to December 2021.
  • The East Midlands saw the highest annual growth in private rental prices (3.3 per cent), while London saw the lowest (negative 0.1 per cent).

For the IPHRP for December 2021, click here. For the comparison document, click here.

Letting agents’ experiences of operating the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme
On 20January 2022 HM Revenue & Customs published research exploring letting agents’ experiences of operating the Non-Resident Landlord (NRL) Scheme. The NRL Scheme is a withholding tax regime to ensure tax is collected from overseas landlords on their UK property income. The research explored emerging themes relating to: awareness and understanding of the NRL Scheme; experiences of operating the NRL Scheme; and suggestions to improve the NRL Scheme. For the research, click here.

Hoarding in council housing
On 20 January 2022 ARCH reported that it had been contacted by HoardingUK, a charity dedicated to supporting people affected by hoarding behaviours, who are looking to work with local authority landlords to help tackle and support tenants and residents with hoarding behaviours who may present a risk to themselves and others. Any ARCH member councils interested in working with HoardingUK to tackle problems of hoarding within their area are invited to contact ARCH Chief Executive John Bibby and they will be put in touch with HoardingUK. For more information, including contact details, click here.

Government defeated as Lords vote for repeal of Vagrancy Act
On 18 January 2022 the House of Lords voted in favour of an amendment to the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill to abolish the Vagrancy Act 1824. The legislation criminalises rough sleeping and begging. The amendment to include its repeal was tabled by Lord Best, following a campaign by Crisis, with support from MPs and peers of all parties and crossbenchers. Ministers in the Lords did not support the amendment and were defeated by 144 votes to 101. The amendment will now be included in the Bill as it is sent back to the House of Commons for MPs' approval. For a report by Crisis, click here. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Help to Buy Wales: guidance on external cladding affected properties
On 21 January 2022 the Welsh Government published guidance on external cladding affected properties for RICS valuers who might be instructed to carry out a market valuation on such a property where a Help to Buy Wales shared equity loan is held . For the guidance, go to wales.gov, click on ‘Housing’ and then ‘Publications’.

Severe maladministration for serious failures on dealing with mould in resident’s home: Housing Ombudsman
On 18 January 2022 the Housing Ombudsman reported that it had found that Great Yarmouth Borough Council failed to deal with mould growth throughout a resident’s home that was causing damage, and then delayed in putting right faulty improvement works that worsened the situation. It took more than 12 months to put right failures in its installation of new windows and doors at the property. These failings had a significant impact on the resident’s living conditions and the landlord’s compensation award of £500 did not offer sufficient redress for this. The Ombudsman’s investigation found severe maladministration by the landlord in its handling of the repairs and improvement works to the resident’s property and service failure for its complaint handling. The Ombudsman ordered the landlord to apologise to the resident and pay additional compensation of £1,700. It also ordered the landlord to review its handling of the case to avoid similar situations. For the report, click here.

Charter to protect London leaseholders launched
On 21 January 2022 the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, launched a new Service Charges Charter. The Charter includes a set of commitments that housing providers are expected to comply with to improve the experience of London leaseholders. It has four overarching themes:

  • Transparency – ensuring leaseholders are provided with the information they need to understand their service charges 
  • Affordability – ensuring that leaseholders can afford the service charges imposed upon them  
  • Design – encouraging design approaches for new build developments that minimise the need for service charges while ensuring high quality design  
  • Challenge and redress – making leaseholders aware of how to challenge their service charges and the routes to redress that are available to them.

For more details, click here.

Universal Credit and rent
On 20 January 2022 the National Residential Landlords Association reported the results of a YouGov poll of private landlords across England and Wales that found that almost one in ten private landlords (9 per cent) renting to Universal Credit claimants have experienced at least one tenant having difficulties paying their rent due to benefit cuts. The NRLA is warning that this will only become worse as a result of the Government’s decision last year to freeze in cash terms housing cost support. As a result, in the years ahead the level of benefit support available will be able to cover the rent on ever fewer numbers of properties. For the report, click here.
HOUSING LAWS IN THE PIPELINE
 

Caravan Site Licensing (Exemptions of Motor Homes) Bill
This Private Members’ Bill, sponsored by Sir Christopher Chope, would exempt motor homes from caravan site licensing requirements. It was presented to Parliament on 21 June 2021. Second reading was further postponed to 14 January 2022 but was nit debated on that day.The Bill awaits publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Homeless People (Current Accounts) Bill
This Private Members’ Bill, sponsored by Peter Bone, would require banks to provide current accounts for homeless people seeking work. It was presented to Parliament on 21 June 2021. Second reading has been further postponed to 28 January 2022. The Bill awaits publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Caravan Sites Bill
This Private Members’ Bill, sponsored by Sir Christopher Chope, would amend the requirements for caravan site licence applications made under the Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960. It was presented to Parliament on 21 June 2021 and its second reading was been further postponed to 28 January 2022.The Bill awaits publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Asylum Seekers (Accommodation Eviction Procedures) Bill
This Private Members’ Bill, sponsored by Chris Stephens, would make provision for asylum seekers to challenge the proportionality of a proposed eviction from accommodation before an independent court or tribunal; and establish asylum seeker accommodation eviction procedures for public authorities. It was presented to Parliament on 21 June 2021. The second reading was postponed to 14 January 2022 but was not debated on that day.The Bill awaits publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill
This Government Bill would make provision about the rent payable under long leases of dwellings. The Bill completed its House of Lords stages on 14 September 2021 and was presented to the House of Commons on 15 September 2021. The Bill received its second reading debate on 29 November 2021. The Public Bill Committee reported the Bill with amendments to the House on 9 December 2021. The Bill was due to have its third reading on 24 January 2022. For the Bill as brought from the House of Lords, click here. For a House of Commons Library briefing concerning the Bill, published on 20 January 2022, click here. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Building Safety Bill
This Government Bill would make provision about the safety of people in or about buildings and the standard of buildings, to amend the Architects Act 1997, and to amend provision about complaints made to a housing ombudsman. The Bill completed its passage through the House of Commons on 19 January 2022. It received its first reading in the House of Lords on 20 February 2022. It is due to receive its second reading on 2 February 2022. For the Bill as brought from the House of Commons, click here. For the Government response to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee's pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill, click here. For a House of Commons Library briefing about the Bill, published on 17 January 2022, click here. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Fire and Building Safety (Public Inquiry) Bill
This Bill, sponsored by Daisy Cooper, would establish an independent public inquiry into the Government’s response to concerns about fire and building safety. It was introduced to Parliament on Tuesday 6 July 2021 under the Ten Minute Rule. Second reading has been rescheduled to 18 March 2022. For the Bill, as introduced, click here

Evictions (Universal Credit) Bill
This Private Members’ Bill, sponsored by Chris Stephens, would place a duty on the Secretary of State to prevent the evictions of Universal Credit claimants in rent arrears. It was presented to Parliament on 21 June 2021 and will receive its second reading on 28 January 2022.The Bill awaits publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Housing Standards (Refugees and Asylum Seekers) Bill
This Private Members’ Bill, sponsored by Chris Stephens, would make provision for national minimum standards in accommodation offered to refugees and asylum seekers. It was presented to Parliament on 21 June 2021 and will receive its second reading on 21 January 2022.The Bill awaits publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Under-Occupancy Penalty (Report) Bill
This Private Members’ Bill, sponsored by Chris Stephens, would require the Secretary of State to report to Parliament on the merits of repealing those provisions of the Welfare Reform Act 2012 which provide for persons to be paid reduced rates of housing benefit or Universal Credit because their accommodation is deemed to be under-occupied. It was presented to Parliament on 21 June 2021 and will receive its second reading on 14 January 2022.The Bill awaits publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

Mobile Homes Act 1983 (Amendment) Bill
This Private Members’ Bill, sponsored by Sir Christopher Chope, would amend the Mobile Homes Act 1983. It was presented to Parliament on 21 June 2021 and will receive its second reading on 28 January 2022. The Bill awaits publication. To follow progress of the Bill, click here.

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NEW HOUSING CASES
 

R (On the Application Of ZLL) v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2022] EWHC 85 (Admin)

The court found that the claimant’s application for judicial review of the government’s rough sleepers initiative “Everyone In” failed as the issues of concern raised were for political debate and did not breach objective legal standards.

Background

The Everyone In initiative was rolled out at an early stage of the pandemic to get rough sleepers off the streets during the pandemic due to their vulnerability and the need to prevent others from being infected.

This claim was brought by a Chinese national who came to the United Kingdom in 2002 and whose visa expired in 2004. He had spent many years rough sleeping. In April 2021 he approached Camden LBC for accommodation, relying on the Everyone In initiative. Camden LBC accepted that it had a discretion to accommodate him but said it had decided not to exercise that discretion in his case because he had no recourse to public funds (NRPF) and was not within the “most vulnerable and at risk” group of rough sleepers. A separate claim for judicial review challenged that decision and had been stayed pending resolution of this claim.

This claim for judicial review challenged the Defendant’s decision to end the Everyone In initiative on two grounds:

(1) breach of a public law duty by adopting an unpublished position in non-conformity with published Government policy; and

(2) breach of a public law duty in not conducting prior consultation with Shelter.

Legal principles adopted by the court

The court identified the following propositions as being relevant to ground (1):

  1. A local authority can only exercise powers conferred by statute and does not have any common law powers;
  2. The court in R (Ncube) v Brighton and Hove City Council [2021] EWHC 578 (Admin) found that a local authority could provide accommodation to a NRPF rough sleeper. It could exercise the power to provide temporary accommodation under s.138 of the Local Government Act 1972 (powers with respect to emergencies or disasters) to do so. A local authority could also exercise the power in s.2B of the National Health Service Act 2006 (steps for improving the health of people in the area);
  3. In exercise of the above powers, a local authority can take blanket action to accommodate all NRPF individuals;
  4. There are contexts in which it is legally necessary for public authority powers to be circumscribed by means of the issuing of prescriptive policy guidance;
  5. Prescriptive policy guidance, which has been issued, may in law need to be published;
  6. Prescriptive policy guidance may be issued from one public body to another;
  7. Public law recognises a basic duty on the decision-maker to act in conformity with that policy guidance, absent good reason for departing from it. If there is a new policy which replaces the published policy guidance, the new policy must itself be published;
  8. The above duty of conformity means an individual has a right to have their case considered under any such policy;
  9. The role of the court arises notwithstanding that the choice of the contents of any prescriptive policy guidance are for the relevant public authority, subject to the reasonableness duty. The application of prescriptive policy guidance to an individual case will be a question for the primary judgment of the decision-maker, though the interpretation of the policy guidance in principle engages a hard-edged question for the judicial review court.

Ground 1

The court set out a detailed timeline of announcements and communications launched by the government over the course of the pandemic [8-37].

The court agreed that there had been an ‘elusiveness, a fluidity, and an ambiguity in those communications’ [44]. However, it concluded that the resolution of any ambiguity belonged ‘to the arena of public opinion, and of political and democratic accountability’ for the following reasons:

  1. The case put forward by the Claimants would in effect lead to all rough sleepers having the rights under the Everyone In initiative;
  2. The statements of Government “policy” in relation to the Everyone In initiative were not, by their nature, statements of prescriptive policy guidance. They did not purport to set out definitive decision-making criteria for local authorities; still less did they do so on an open-ended basis [46];
  3. The statements of Government “policy” in relation to the Everyone In initiative arose in the specific context of the pandemic and did not purport to communicate an ‘open-ended’ position [47];
  4. The Everyone In initiative was not framed as a programme, supported by a continuum of designated funding [48];
  5. The emphasis – on individualised assessments, on close regard to the limits of statutory powers, on difficult judgments (especially in the context of NRPF individuals), and on vulnerable rough-sleepers – are contra-indications to there being enduring all-inclusive decision-making criteria, as external prescriptive policy guidance [48];
  6. The Government’s actions were subject to the general public law duty of reasonableness and subject to the duty to act compatibly with Convention rights under the HRA, neither of which is said on behalf of the Claimant to have been breached in this case [49].

Ground 2

The court dismissed this ground finding that ‘the merits of whether and when to engage with Shelter were questions for the Defendant to evaluate and decide’.

Following the reasoning under ground 1, the court concluded that there had been no ending of a published policy decision. Further, the four meetings and various communications between Shelter and the Defendant between March 2020 to March 2021 did not constitute a “continuous and intense dialogue” capable of triggering a duty of consultation.

Summary by Parissa Najah, barrister, Trinity Chambers. For the judgment, click here.

HOUSING LAW CONSULTATIONS
 

Regulator of Social Housing: Consultation on the introduction of tenant satisfaction measures
The Regulator of Social Housing is seeking views on its proposals for tenant satisfaction measures which are part of implementing changes to consumer regulation set out in the Government’s ‘The Charter for Social Housing Residents: Social Housing White Paper’. The measures would provide data about social housing landlords’ performance and the quality of their services to help tenants hold their landlord to account and help RSH in its future consumer regulation role. The Regulator looks forward to hearing from landlords, tenants and anyone with an interest in social housing by 3 March 2022. For the consultation documents, click here.

Reforming the leasehold and commonhold systems in England and Wales
The DLUHC is consulting on a number of Law Commission recommendations that would broaden access to enfranchisement (buying the freehold) and the ‘right to manage’ a building. The proposals would increase the ‘non-residential limit’ from 25 to 50 per cent, allowing leaseholders in buildings with up to 50 per cent non-residential floorspace to buy their freehold or claim a right to manage. The DLUHC is also considering recommendations that allow leaseholders to require that a landlord take on leases for any non-participating units following a collective enfranchisement; the introduction of a non-residential limit for individual freehold acquisitions; and changes to voting rights in right to manage companies. On Commonhold, the Department is considering how shared ownership products could work in commonhold settings; and the provision of information for buying and selling a commonhold property.

For the consultation, which closes on 22 February 2022, click here.

HOUSING LAW ARTICLES & PUBLICATIONS
 

Remedying breaches of the Public Sector Equality Duty Katherine Apps Local Government Lawyer 17January 2022 – to read the article, click here

Build to rent’s glitzy goldrush raises fears for social housing Georgina Quach Guardian 22 January 2022 – to read the article, click here

RROs, company directors and reasonable excuses Giles Peaker Nearly Legal 23 January 2022 – to read the article, click here

How co-operative housing gave me the peace of mind I thought I’d never find Rosie Collington Observer 23 January 2022 – to read the article, click here

The case for commissioning Housing First through Rough Sleeping Initiative budgets Alex Smith Homeless Link 24 January 2022 – to read the article, click here

Housing: recent developments (December 21/ January 22) Sam Madge-Wyld and Jan Luba QC Legal Action – to read the article (subscription required), click here

HOUSING LAW DIARY
 

31 January 2022                                  
Rent Officers (Housing Benefit and Universal Credit Functions) (Amendment and Modification) Order 2021 comes into force

28 January 2022                                   
Postponed second reading in the House of Commons of the Homeless People (Current Accounts) Bill (see Housing Laws in the Pipeline)

28 January 2022                                   
Postponed second reading in the House of Commons of the Caravan Sites Bill (see Housing Laws in the Pipeline)

2 February 2022                                   
Second reading in the House of Lords of the Building Safety Bill (see Housing Laws in the Pipeline)

22 February 2022                                 
Closing date for submissions to the consultation on Reforming the leasehold and commonhold systems in England and Wales (see Housing Law Consultations)

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Landlord Action Solicitors are looking for a Paralegal/Assistant Caseworker to support our Landlord Action legal team.  Strong communication, organisational, and attention to detail skills are vital and a background in property management, housing or legal experience is desirable.  The successful candidate will be supporting the Legal Team with the preparation of bundles, bailiff applications, communicating directly with clients with updates on cases, as well as converting incoming calls into new instructions, taking payments, and supporting the legal team with general administrative tasks.

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