High Court Stops Council from Blocking Access to Social Housing for the Homeless

A family lost their privately rented home in Westminster because the benefit cap meant they could no longer afford their rent. Westminster Council agreed it had to accommodate them. But first it placed them in Enfield and then it applied a new rule blocking them from bidding for social housing in Westminster for 12 months. This happened despite the law requiring that homeless people are to be given a “reasonable preference” in the allocation of social housing in the area to which they apply. Westminster’s thinking was that it would use the 12 months to find homes for homeless applicants in the private rented sector – in order to bring its own duties to an end. The High Court has decided that Westminster’s new rule unlawfully blocked homeless people by denying them the preference the law requires them to have. The judge declared the new provisions (brought into Westminster’s Housing Allocation Scheme last year) to be unlawful. Read more on the Garden Court Chambers website.