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.
