Housing News: The Last Week On Monday 15 October 2007, the Housing Minister announced the establishment of "The Office for Tenants and Social Landlords" which will become the new regulator in the social housing sector. From 2009 its jurisdiction will extend to housing associations and from 2011 it will also cover local authority landlords. It […]
EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE Age discrimination Palacios v Cortefiel C 411/05A compulsory retirement age of 65 allowed in Spain under collective agreement was not in breach of the Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation 2000 with respect to age discrimination. The provision was objectively and reasonably justified under Article 6(1) in the context […]
Housing News: The Last Week On 11 October 2007 the Government published details of its new measures to evaluate performance of local authority housing services. From April 2008 the current measures (such as Best Value Performance indicators) will be scrapped and replaced by new National Indicators (NIs). The NIs for Housing are NI156 (Households in […]
Housing News: The Last Week On Monday 1st October 2007 the new arrangements to enable postponed possession orders (N28A) to be made against assured tenants took effect. The Practice Direction to CPR Part 55 has been modified to extend the provisions enabling landlords of assured tenants to apply for the fixing of a date for […]
EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL Statutory grievance procedure Dick Lovett Ltd v Evans UKEAT/0211/07/JOJThe Tribunal had erred in holding that explanations given in a meeting which took place subsequent to the purported grievance letter was part of the relevant context to be taken into account when deciding whether the original letter met the statutory requirements. Redundancy pay […]
Housing News: The Last Week On Monday 24 September 2007 the Government published a new guide for tenants of student accommodation in the private sector about fire safety and their rights. For a copy click here On Thursday 27 September the Mayor of London published two reports that aim to help increase the supply and […]
We are pleased to announce that Garden Court has been highly ranked in the Legal 500. We are especially pleased for the family team who for the first time are appearing as a leading set.
COURT OF APPEAL Equal Pay Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council v Bainbridge [2007] EWCA Civ 910The Court of Appeal holds that section 1(5) Equal Pay Act 1975 applies to work that is rated of higher value than a man’s as well as work that is rated the same. More info EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL Statutory grievance […]
Housing News: The Last Week On Monday 17 September 2007 Shelter released an analysis of the extent to which London Borough Councils were failing to meet targets on the provision of new affordable housing in their areas. Only 5 councils had produced more than 50% affordable homes among new-build housing. For the details click here […]
Barristers at Garden Court have strongly rejected proposals from the Legal Service Commission to implement cuts in the Specialist Support Contract funding
Housing News: The Last Week On Monday 10 September 2007 the latest homelessness statistics for England were published. They show that the numbers of applications and acceptances are still falling. There are almost 85,000 households in temporary accommodation. For the full details click here . The latest homelessness figures for Wales were published separately earlier […]
News The Home Secretary announced that Professor David Metcalf has been appointed as the Chair of the new Migration Advisory Committee (MAC). The MAC will provide evidence to ministers on where the economy needs migration and where it does not. The MAC will influence how many points a migrant needs to come Britain when the […]
The 2006 appeal turned on new evidence that, unknown to the defence at the time of trial, the main prosecution witness Darren Nicholls had done a deals to sell his story to a journalist and a TV producer, with the prospect of a feature film.
Caselaw Catch-Up The last three weeks of July 2007 saw a burst of important decisions in Housing cases. Readers may be tempted by the following short summaries of cases, not previously noted in this Bulletin, to take a look at the full judgments: Possession and Disability Discrimination. Court of Appeal decides that DDA can provide […]
David Watkinson recently highlighted the status of individual occupiers faced with ambiguities and inconsistencies in the law which typically lead to widespread injustices.
Consultation Conundrum Housing lawyers and advisers returning after a Summer break will find that time is fast running-out for responses to the most significant range of consultation exercises the sector has ever faced. Those probably most important to housing lawyers are "asterisked" below. The full list of upcoming deadlines and the topics is: * 10 […]
EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL Withdrawal of claim Silva-Douglas v London School of Economics UKEAT/0075/07/RNOnce withdrawal of a claim is notified to the Tribunal under Rule 25 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2004 it cannot be reversed, even if such an attempt is made a few hours later. Time limits Beasley v National Grid Electricity […]
News UK visas are now accepting all Iraqi passports for entry clearance applications to travel to the UK, following the Court of Appeal’s judgment in NA (Iraq), R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs & Ors [2007] EWCA Civ 759. However they have stated that they may still […]
Stephanie Harrison and Stephen Simblet from Garden Court Chambers (together with Nick Blake QC) represented people and organisations opposed to expansion at Heathrow Airport in an application by the airport for an injunction prohibiting harassment and nui
COURT OF APPEAL Unauthorised deductions Luke v Stoke on Trent City Council [2007] EWCA Civ 761It was not necessary to imply a term into the Claimant’s contract that she could be required to work elsewhere which allowed the Respondent to stop paying her when she refused to do so. The Claimant had refused a reasonable […]
