Legal Challenge Over New Permitted Development Rules

A campaign group has launched a judicial review challenge to the Government’s new rules on permitted development, which the Prime Minister’s Office at the time of their launch described as “the most radical reforms to our planning system since the Second World War". On 21 August Rights : Community : Action (RCA) issued a pre-action letter to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. It challenges the lawfulness of several statutory instruments. RCA claimed that the new rules had been brought in without proper consultation and without parliamentary debate. Read more on the Local Government Lawyer website.

https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/planning/401-planning-news/44693-government-hit-by-legal-challenge-over-new-permitted-development-rules

Landlords Back Bid To Overturn Right To Rent

The country’s leading landlord organisation is supporting efforts to overturn a flagship immigration policy, saying its members won’t be “scapegoats for the failures of the border agencies.” Under the Right to Rent Scheme landlords are responsible for checking the immigration status of their tenants with the prospect of prosecution if they know or have “reasonable cause to believe” that the property they are letting is occupied by someone who does not have the right to rent in the UK. Now, the Residential Landlords Association (RLA) is supporting a Judicial Review of the policy being sought today by the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI) which argues that the policy discriminates against foreign nationals. Read more on the RLA website.

https://news.rla.org.uk/rla-backs-legal-bid-overturn-right-right/

High Court Test Case Will Determine Future Of Rural Housing Development

A judicial review of a Suffolk district council’s planning decision in the High Court will be a test case with potentially far-reaching implications for rural housing developments in England. The case, which is being brought by East Bergholt Parish Council, concerns the building of 10 homes in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty best known for inspiring the works of John Constable. A separate decision on the same day by the same district council to allow 144 homes to be built on another site in East Bergholt is now being reconsidered and could depend on the outcome of this test case. Overall, the development of more than 415 houses in rural parts of Suffolk depend on the outcome of this case. Read more on Housing Excellence.

Policy Change Soon? Minister Meets Buy To Let Tax Campaigners

Housing minister Gavin Barwell has met campaigners to scrap anti-buy to let measures introduced by the Cameron government in the past two years - and won their praise for his handling of the meeting.  Landlords have been campaigning for around a year for the scrapping of section 24 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2015 which they describe as an infringement on buy to let investors’ rights. A hearing to decide whether they can trigger a Judicial Review into the specifics of the clause - which restricts mortgage interest relief for landlords - will be heard next month. Read more on the Estate Agent Today website.

Council Ends Controversial Agreement

Winchester Council has voted to terminate a development agreement that was called in by the previous secretary of state and led to the resignation of the council leader last year. The controversial 287-home Silver Hill development was frozen by Eric Pickles last year after the council agreed to allow the developer, TH Real Estate, to drop a 40% affordable housing commitment down to zero without running a new procurement exercise. The scheme was subject to a judicial review launched by a local campaign group. The Conservative council leader resigned in February last year following the High Court judgment that found the council had acted unlawfully. TH Real Estate is appealing the judgment and had requested the council delay terminating the agreement until at least nine months after its appeal proceedings had finished. Read more on the Winchester City Council website.

High Court Orders Benefit Cap Judicial Review

The high court has ordered an urgent judicial review into the benefit cap and its impact on disabled people and their carers.  A claim by Iain Duncan Smith to have the case dismissed was unsuccessful and the High Court ruled that the case should proceed to a full hearing, no later than October 2015. The judgement comes soon after the Supreme Court ruled that the benefit cap breached children’s rights, meaning it could result in them not receiving “adequate food, clothing, warmth and housing, the basic necessities of life”. The Government recently admitted that the benefit cap could have “unintended consequences” for victims of domestic violence and amended the legislation to exempt those in women’s refuges. Read more on the Welfare Weekly website.

Council Faces High Court Challenge over Crisis Payment Conditions

The High Court has given the go-ahead to a legal challenge that could prevent councils forcing people to join a work programme or move home as conditions of receiving housing crisis payment awards. Anti-poverty charity Zacchaeus 2000 Trust has been given permission to pursue a judicial review against Westminster Council for making receipt of discretionary housing payments (DHP) conditional on seeking work and searching for more affordable properties. Zacchaeus 2000 Trust says Westminster Council’s policy on deciding DHP claims for tenants affected by the £26,000-a-year total household benefit cap is unlawful. Read more on Inside Housing.

Liberty Granted Permission for Bedroom Tax Court Challenge

A human rights group has been given permission to proceed with a judicial review against the bedroom tax, claiming the policy unfairly affects separated families. A High Court judge granted permission for Liberty to proceed with a challenge against the measure, which penalises a parent for having a spare room if that room is lived in part-time by their child. Liberty says the scheme breaches the European Convention on Human Rights, which says people have a right to a private and family life. Read more on Inside Housing.

Single Mothers Lose Benefits Cap Legal Battle

Senior judges have rejected an attempt to challenge the lawfulness of the benefits cap , a central plank of government's welfare policy. Lawyers acting for three families affected by the cap had argued that it unlawfully discriminates against children and women, particularly those affected by domestic violence.  The claimants' lawyers described the cap as a "cruel and arbitrary" policy that would trap vulnerable women in violent relationships, and would reduce capped household income to a level that would make it impossible for parents to provide adequate food, clothing and other essentials for their children. But two high court judges dismissed the claim for a judicial review, ruling that although the cap may be seen by some to be "too parsimonious" it was consistent with a "broad political concept of fairness" outlined by the secretary of state for work and pensions. Read more on the Guardian website.

Bedroom Tax High Court Ruling Due

Under new ''size criteria'', tenants with one spare bedroom have had a payment reduction of 14% and those deemed to have two or more spare, a reduction of 25%.  Human rights lawyers say that, unless the families move from their homes into smaller properties, they face building up rent arrears and being forced out anyway.  Eleven cases were brought before London's High Court and are said to illustrate the serious impact of the regulations on disabled people up and down the country. Martin Westgate QC, for the applicants, told two judges the regulations were flawed because they failed to deal with the needs of the disabled and the amount of space and the number of rooms they realistically needed if they were not to suffer discrimination because of their disabilities. Read more on the Express and Star website.

Legal Threat for Councils over Homeless Provision

Councils may be forced to spend more time assessing the needs of homeless people and find them temporary accommodation while they do so, as a result of a legal challenge. Judge Anthony Thornton flagged up the potential impact of the case of a man who was last week granted permission to apply for a judicial review of the way Westminster Council handled his homelessness application.  Judge Thornton said that given ‘the importance and topicality of this decision’ in the field of homeless applications he had ‘certified that this judgement may be cited and referred to in other cases or situations’. Read more on Inside Housing.

Benefits Cap Will Have Catastrophic Effect on Families

Families will suffer catastrophic effects and victims of domestic violence may be forced to return to their abusers, it will be argued in the first test cases challenging the government's imposition of a £500-a-week cap on benefits.

A judge has already given permission for a full judicial review of claims that involve four vulnerable families relying on welfare payments. One household is facing imminent eviction, according to documents filed at the high court. One of the families lives in Haringey, one of the four London boroughs selected by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) as pilot areas for introducing the controversial benefits cap.  Read more on the Guardian website.

Government Lose Bedroom Tax Challenge Decision

The Government has failed in its attempt to prevent legal action against its controversial Bedroom Tax, after a judicial review of the decision was granted permission to proceed in the High Court.  A Judicial Review of the Government's controversial decision to deny housing benefit to people who have more than one bedroom if they are single or a couple will now be heard in early May.  Law Firm Leigh Day are taking legal action on behalf of two clients who are challenging the Government’s proposed ‘bedroom tax’.  Read more on the Leigh Day website.

Bedroom Tax Breaches Right to Family Life

Liberty has announced it will seek Judicial Review of the Government’s controversial new “bedroom tax” policy based on the impact on separated families with shared custody of children. The announcement comes days before the High Court is due to rule whether a challenge based on the effect on disabled people should be allowed to proceed.  Earlier this month a separate challenge to the penalty was brought on behalf of 10 vulnerable and disabled children who will be affected by the policy. The High Court is expected to rule on whether this challenge can proceed within the next few days.  Read more on the Liberty website.

Legal Bid Fails to Stop Housing Benefit Reforms

The High Court has dismissed a claim for a judicial review of the government’s decision to limit housing benefit payments for tenants in the private rented sector.  Charity Zacchaeus 2000 Trust argued the government acted outside the law in the way it implemented the change, and that work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith failed to comply with legislation on equality.  But Justice Underwood ruled the government did have the power to introduce the changes to the way local housing allowance payments are calculated, and was not in breach of section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. He criticised the form of the department’s equality impact assessment, but said the problems did not go far enough to constitute a ‘legal flaw’.  Read more on Inside Housing.

IDS Gets 14 Days to Save Bedroom Tax from Judicial Review

Iain Duncan Smith has been given two weeks to demonstrate why the bedroom tax should not be subject to a judicial review.  The work and pensions secretary is facing a legal challenge against the government's 'under-occupancy' charge by law firm Hopkin Murray Beskine on behalf of 10 disabled children. At the high court, Mr Justice Mitting ruled that the claimants’ desire for a judicial review before the policy's inception on April 1 was too short a timescale.  But he said a full hearing could proceed in May if he decided that a review should go ahead after hearing the DWP’s reasons for contesting the challenge.  Read more on 24dash.