header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
09 July 2025
Issue: 8124 / Categories: Legal News , Legal aid focus , Immigration & asylum , Housing
printer mail-detail

Legal aid boost for housing & immigration practitioners

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.
A proposed £20m boost for housing and immigration legal aid practitioners has been confirmed

The investment will increase overall spend by 24% on housing legal aid and by 30% on immigration and asylum legal aid, and is the first real-terms fees rise for 30 years.

According to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), it means the fixed fee for housing work will increase by 42% from £157 to £223 and the fixed fee for asylum legal help will increase by 35% from £413 to £559.

The MoJ said the investment will be implemented ‘as soon as operationally possible’.

However, Law Society president Richard Atkinson said: ‘Our research has found that this work is simply not profitable for practitioners at present, indeed a 95% increase is needed to restore fees to 1996 levels.’

Both Atkinson and Barbara Mills KC, chair of the Bar Council, urged the government to create an independent fee review body for legal aid.

Issue: 8124 / Categories: Legal News , Legal aid focus , Immigration & asylum , Housing
printer mail-details

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sidley—James Inness

Sidley—James Inness

Partner joins capital markets team in London office

Haynes Boone—William Cecil

Haynes Boone—William Cecil

Firm announces appointment of partner as UK general counsel

Devonshires—Nicholas Barrows

Devonshires—Nicholas Barrows

Firm appoints first chief marketing officer to drive growth strategy

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: CPR tweak closes third-party disclosure gap
A seemingly dry procedural update may prove potent. In his latest 'Civil way' column for NLJ this week, Stephen Gold explains that new CPR 31.12A—part of the 193rd update—fills a ‘lacuna’ exposed in McLaren Indy v Alpa Racing
NLJ this week: Court of Appeals wrestles with Mazur fallout
The long-running Mazur saga edged towards its finale as the Court of Appeal heard arguments on whether non-solicitors can ‘conduct litigation’. Writing in NLJ this week, Professor Dominic Regan of City Law School reports from a packed courtroom where 16 wigs watched Nick Bacon KC argue that Mr Justice Sheldon had failed to distinguish between ‘tasks and responsibilities’
NLJ this week: Appeal court reins in ‘wrong defendant’ switcheroo

The Court of Appeal has slammed the brakes on claimants trying to swap defendants after limitation has expired. In Adcamp LLP v Office Properties and BDB Pitmans v Lee [2026] EWCA Civ 50, it overturned High Court rulings that had allowed substitutions under s 35(6)(b) of the Limitation Act 1980, reports Sarah Crowther of DAC Beachcroft in this week's NLJ

NLJ this week: Driving test fraudsters steer towards jail
Cheating in driving tests is surging—and courts are responding firmly. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Parpworth of De Montfort Law School charts a rise in impersonation and tech-assisted fraud, with 2,844 attempts recorded in a year
NLJ this week: Deepfakes demand data law muscle
As AI-generated ‘deepfake’ images proliferate, the law may already have the tools to respond. In NLJ this week, Jon Belcher of Excello Law argues that such images amount to personal data processing under UK GDPR
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll