Safe as houses?

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.