Publications

Supreme Court finds funding pressures don’t excuse local authority failure to comply with duty to accommodate homeless in R (Imam) v LB Croydon

The Supreme Court in R (Imam) v London Borough of Croydon has unanimously held that general funding pressures are not an excuse for non-compliance with a local authority's duty under s193(2) of the Housing Act 1996 to provide suitable accommodation to a homeless individual. However, the court should consider a local authority's resources and extent of its housing portfolio when deciding whether to grant a mandatory order rather than some other relief.

Family Law Week judgment summary: H (Children: Placement Orders) [2023] EWCA Civ 1245

Rebecca Davies summarises a judgment for Family Law Week about an appeal against the decision to allow a 1-year-old child to remain in her mother's care and for placement orders relating to the child's 2 older brothers to be revoked. Several case management issues were addressed during the appeal, including a reminder that a local authority obtain a transcript when care and placement orders are made and an application of Ladd v Marshall principles.

Supreme Court decision in Agnew increases employers’ potential exposure to historic holiday pay claims

The Supreme Court in Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and another (Appellants/Cross-Respondents) v Agnew and others (Respondents/Cross-Appellants) (Northern Ireland)  held inter alia that, in claims for historic underpayments of holiday pay, breaks of 3 or more months in a series of deductions will not necessarily break the chain of deductions if the deductions are linked by the same underlying cause.