Both housing lawyers and housing officers will be kept busy by a widening of the protections for those at risk of homelessness, Judge Stephen Gold writes this week in NLJ’s Civil Way column. The Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 imposes a new duty on local authorities to provide a written assessment of the circumstances which caused the homelessness or threat, housing needs and what support would be necessary and to try and agree a housing plan. Judge Gold also reports on a case that will please enforcement officers and discusses the difficulties of family proceedings where there is opposition to sale of property.
22 March 2018
Safe as houses?
MOVERS & SHAKERS
Bell Yard Kysen—Liz Giles
Bell Yard Kysen appoints senior legal PR and ex-government communications adviser, Liz Giles
Clarke Willmott—Lee Edwards
Clarke Willmott boosts Southampton commercial property team with addition of partner Lee Edwards
Lime Solicitors—four promotions
Lime Solicitors announces four promotions
NEWS
The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP, and Solicitor General, Andy Slaughter KC MP, marked the 25th anniversary of Pro Bono Week by joining lawyers, charities, students and parliamentarians at events celebrating voluntary legal work
A polished legal defence may owe more to artificial intelligence than legal merit—and creditors risk paying the price in delay and expense
Witness evidence can be compromised by AI before a solicitor sees the draft, leaving safeguards focused on authorship incomplete
Should a conviction stand when a later ruling reveals that the law underpinning it was wrong? The answer exposes a clash between finality and justice
Possession claims are entering a new digital era, with procedural traps awaiting practitioners who assume familiar rules still govern every step
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
