The applicant was a Dutch national. She appealed for housing as a homeless person. The local authority, after review found her not to have a settled intention to stay in England. She appealed, to the County Court, and succeeded, and the Authority now appealed.
Held: The County Court in reviewing such decisions under the section, was exercising a jurisdiction similar to that of the High Court on a judicial review, and therefore was bound by the factual findings of the reviewing officer. The county court has no power to direct a local housing authority how to carry out a review. If there was any question of unfairness in the procedure in denying her a fair trial, then that was for parliament to remedy. The reviewing officer’s decision was re-instated.
Judges:
Lord Justice Brooke, Lady Justice Hale, Mr Justice David Steel
Citations:
Gazette 27-Feb-2002, [2001] EWCA Civ 1916, [2002] 1 WLR 2120, [2001] NPC 185, [2002] UKHRR 229, [2002] HLR 28, [2002] HRLR 17, [2002] 1 All ER 931, 2002 Hous LR 11
Links:
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Distinguished – London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Runa Begum CA 6-Mar-2002
The applicant had applied for rehousing as a homeless person. She was offered interim accommodation but refused it. Her case was reviewed, and her reasons rejected. She claimed the procedure was unfair, in that the authority was looking at decisions . .
Cited – Runa Begum v London Borough of Tower Hamlets (First Secretary of State intervening) HL 13-Feb-2003
The appellant challenged the procedure for reviewing a decision made as to the suitability of accomodation offered to her after the respondent had accepted her as being homeless. The procedure involved a review by an officer of the council, with an . .
Cited – Heald and Others v London Borough of Brent CA 20-Aug-2009
The court considered whether it was lawful for a local authority to outsource the decision making on homelessness reviews. The appellants said that it could not be contracted out, and that the agent employed lacked the necessary independence and was . .
Cited – Poshteh v Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea SC 10-May-2017
The appellant, applying for housing as a homeless person, had rejected the final property offered on the basis that its resemblance to the conditions of incarceration in Iran, from which she had fled, would continue and indeed the mental . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Housing, Human Rights
Updated: 05 June 2022; Ref: scu.167059