High Court rules London Councils not meeting equality duties
Plans to cut vital grants for more than 400 voluntary sector groups that help London’s poorest and weakest are unlawful, the High Court has ruled.
Mr Justice Calvert-Smith ruled that London Councils failed to meet its statutory equality duties when it decided to cut its London Boroughs Grant Scheme by £10m. All the decisions were quashed including decisions to stop funding 213 projects run by 177 different organisations.
Calvert-Smith J ordered London Councils to “undertake a lawful process of reconsideration in accordance with the public sector equality duties”, and that no funding was to be terminated until “three months after the conclusion of the lawful consideration process”.
London Councils must therefore re-run its consultation process, this time with full equality impact assessments.
The case, R (Hajrula and Hamza) v London Councils [2011] EWHC 151, is the first to look at local authority equality duties since the coalition government introduced its cuts package.
London Voluntary Service Council’s chief executive Peter Lewis says the case sets an excellent precedent:
