How local must local housing be, asks Nicholas Dobson
What does the “local” in local housing mean? In particular can a local housing authority discharge its duties to homeless people by offering them accommodation over 50 miles outside its area? “No” came the clear and unanimous answer from the Supreme Court on 2 April 2015 in the circumstances of the matter before it. This was Nzolameso v City of Westminster [2015] UKSC 22, [2015] 2 All ER 942 and Lady Hale (as deputy president) gave the sole judgment on behalf of herself and her colleagues: Lords Clarke, Reed, Hughes and Toulson.
She opened by posing the key question: when was it “lawful for a local housing authority to accommodate a homeless person a long way away from the authority’s own area where the homeless person was previously living?” For there was “no doubt that, for a variety of reasons, such ‘out of borough’ placements have become increasingly common in recent years”.
Local housing authorities have a statutory duty under s 208(1) of the Housing Act 1996
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