The Court considered the nature of the duty owed by local housing authorities to homeless persons under section 193(2) of the Housing Act 1966 (‘the 1996 Act’). That section provides that a local housing authority ‘shall secure that accommodation is available for occupation by the applicant’.
Steyn J (‘the Judge’) held that the duty imposed an immediate, unqualified and non-deferrable duty on the local housing authority to secure that accommodation is available once it accepted that the applicant was homeless, eligible for assistance, had a priority need and was not intentionally homeless. The appellant local housing authority, Birmingham City Council, (‘Birmingham’) contends that the Judge erred as the duty was not an immediate and unqualified duty to secure accommodation but, rather, a duty to secure that accommodation is available within a reasonable period of time, the reasonableness of the period depending upon the circumstances of each case and what accommodation is available.
Judges:
Lord Justice Underhill
(Vice-President of the Court of Appeal (Civil Division))
Lord Justice Peter Jackson
And
Lord Justice Lewis
Citations:
[2022] EWCA Civ 601
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Housing
Updated: 02 June 2022; Ref: scu.677425
