‘The Supreme court will decide on Wednesday if a cornerstone of the coalition government’s benefits policy is unlawful.’
The Guardian, 18th March 2015
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
‘The 2015 election campaign will not be the first in which all parties will be promising to outstrip their rivals in their support for the NHS. At the Labour Party Conference last year Ed Miliband announced that a next Labour Government would introduce a tax– a so-called mansion tax – on high value homes worth more than £2million. In an article in the Hampstead and Highgate Express (October 23 2014), designed to calm jittery voters where Labour’s majority is the smallest in the country, Ed Balls stated that the tax will be charged at £250 a month on properties worth between £2 and £3 million, but above £3 million it is apparently to be charged at 1% of capital value. The revenue from the tax, it is said, will contribute to a Time to Care Fund to help the NHS. He estimates that the mansion tax alone will put £1.2 billion into the Fund.’
Full story (PDF)
Falcon Chambers, February 2015
Source: www.falcon-chambers.co.uk
‘The Supreme Court handed down its decision yesterday in Akerman-Livingstone v. Aster Communities Ltd (formerly Flourish Homes Ltd) [2015] UKSC 15 in which it considered the test of justification for discrimination under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010 (the EqA) as compared with justification for Article 8 of the Convention.’
Cloisters, 12th March 2015
Source: www.cloisters.com
‘We don’t usually (indeed ever) repost previous material on NL. But I’m making an exception for this one, because I think it is timely. Flexible tenancies have been in existence for a while in some boroughs and I would expect that it is round about now that possession proceedings for a fault based grounds (rather than the end of the term and non-renewal of the flexible tenancy) would be starting to happen. I haven’t seen any yet, but my local boroughs don’t have flexible tenancies.’
NearlyLegal, 24th February 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘Courtesy of Hansen Palomares Solicitors comes news of this settled Judicial Review of LB Southwark’s gatekeeping practices on homeless applications. It appears, to put it mildly, that Southwark have had a range of what should have been obviously unlawful policies on homeless applications, and even put them into leaflets and their website.’
NearlyLegal, 22nd February 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘European Union law gave a Zambrano carer, being a non-European Union citizen responsible for the care of an EU citizen child, the right to reside in the United Kingdom from the time when it became apparent that she qualified as a Zambrano carer. However, it did not give her an entitlement to social assistance on the same basis as an EU citizen lawfully resident in the UK. It was for national law to determine the level of benefits to which she was entitled.’
WLR Daily, 10th February 2015
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘There must be times when Court of Appeal judges think that they have bit parts in an ongoing drama – they have a walk on role. And that must be how the Court felt in Sanneh v SSWP and others [2015] EWCA Civ 49, which concerns the eligibility rules for Zambrano carers of a raft of social assistance benefits. Leading QCs and junior barristers appeared on all sides in a right ding dong that is bound to end up at the Supreme Court, which almost certainly will refer the issues to the CJEU. It also provides a glimpse of how the recent, potentially contradictory, judgments of the CJEU in Brey and Dano are, or might be, treated (although it looks like the UKSC will have the next bite of those rather earlier, in the Mirga and Samin appeals in March) and the question of the ambit of “social assistance”, which in itself is not uninteresting, is also raised, but parked by the CA, in these appeals ([84] – note: this is an important point for the future).’
NearlyLegal, 12th February 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘Landlords are preparing to turn away tenants just because they have a foreign accent, as a consequence of new rules making it an offence to let rooms to illegal migrants.’
Full story
The Independent, 15th February 2015
Source: www.independent.co.uk
‘Anita Mehta, barrister of Crown Office Row, Brighton, argues that Schedule 1 to the Children Act 1989 applications should not be regarded as the domain of footballers’ girlfriends or the uber-wealthy but as a powerful tool for meeting children’s needs in a wide variety of cases.’
Full story
Family Law Week, 6th February 2015
Source: www.familylawweek.co.uk
‘The Upper Tribunal has upheld a local authority’s appeal in the lead case on the application of the “bedroom tax” to the shared residence of a child.’
Local Government Lawyer, 10th February 2015
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘I recently found myself reading and writing about the Court of Appeal judgement in Edwards v Kurasamy (our report here). Doing so made me think about the recent spate of judgements given by Lewison LJ that have touched on the private rental sector. I am thinking here of Spencer v Taylor (which we analysed here), Charalambous v Ng, and now Edwards v Kumarasamy. (our report). All of these are cases that touch primarily on the Private Rented Sector and all of them feature leading judgements by Lewison LJ. These are not of course the only big PRS cases to come from the CoA recently so I am not suggesting that Lewison LJ is the only CoA judge dealing with the PRS (see McDonald v McDonald for example) but he does seem to be getting a healthy majority right now.’
NearlyLegal, 9th February 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘As well as the clauses introducing the retaliatory eviction proposals, the Government’s proposed amendments to the Deregulation Bill would make some other changes to s.21. The effects would be:
No s.21 notice can be served within the first 4 months of the shorthold tenancy, thus ending the all too widespread practice of serving a s.21 at the time the tenancy agreement is signed (though I’d still say that was probably caught by the deposit rules). The proposals also make clear that possession proceedings cannot be begun before 6 months from the start of the tenancy (that disposes of an idea some bright spark landlords had, that it was OK to start proceedings before 6 months so long as the possession order was made after the 6 month date).’
NearlyLegal, 8th February 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘The First-tier Tribunal has ordered a London council to disclose redacted information in a viability assessment that led to the authority allowing a developer to vary the amount of affordable housing on a major site.’
Local Government Lawyer, 6th February 2015
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The Supreme Court has given a homeless mother of five permission to appeal a ruling that upheld a London borough’s offer of accommodation near Milton Keynes.’
Full story
Local Government Lawyer, 4th February 2015
Source: www.localgovernment.co.uk
‘Ms Y is the leaseholder of a flat below that of Mrs & Mr Shakeshaft, who had a tenant in theirs. There had been repeated leaks, and floods, into Ms Y’s flat over a period of 4 years or so, originating in the Shakeshaft’s flat above and causing considerable damage. Ms Y had brought a claim which, by the time it reached trial at first instance, was purely a claim in nuisance against Mrs & Mr S for the water originating in their flat.’
NearlyLegal, 4th February 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘The out of borough temporary accommodation position continues to get worse, with increasing numbers of homeless shipped out of borough (and for London councils, often out of London). London Councils (pace Nzolameso v Westminster CC ) have put the DCLG ‘Supplementary Guidance on the homelessness changes in the Localism Act 2011 and on the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2012‘ at naught.’
NearlyLegal, 2nd February 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
‘Article 3 of the Council Tax (Exempt Dwellings) Order 1992 provided that a dwelling was an exempt dwelling for the purposes of section 4 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 if it fell into Class B: “a dwelling owned by a body established for charitable purposes only, which is unoccupied and has been so for a period of less than sixmonths since the last occupation day, and was last occupied in furtherance of the objects of the charity”. When seeking exemption from council tax under that provision applicants were required to provide sufficient evidence to show that those conditions were satisfied.’
WLR Daily, 29th January 2015
‘Mr Edwards rented a second floor flat from Mr Kumarasamy. Mr K was the leaseholder of that flat, but did not own any other part of the property. Mr K’s lease granted him “the right to use on foot the entrance hall, lift and staircases giving access to the flat; the right to use an access road and parking space and the right to use the Bin Store (which is part of the Communal Areas as defined) and other facilities provided by the landlord. Regulations forming part of the lease in fact require all domestic rubbish to be placed in the Bin Store.”’
NearlyLegal, 28th January 2015
Source: www.nearlylegal.co.uk
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