The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has lost an appeal over whether a tenant was entitled to a new lease.

The rules on doubling council tax for long-term empty properties are to apply when a property has been uninhabited for 12 months, rather than the current two years, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) has announced.

A dispute over whether revenue generated by Whitby Harbour should have been ring-fenced for harbour use in accordance with a 120-year-old Act is set to be considered by the High Court this week.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has issued legal proceedings against a water firm and a landowner over a sinkhole that has afflicted residents on a residential street since 2019.

The Minister for Housing and Building Safety, Lee Rowley, has called a meeting of council chief executives to discuss action against building owners who fail to remediate medium and high-rise buildings with known safety issues.

The Supreme Court will next week hear a council’s appeal of a Court of Appeal judgment which overturned lower court rulings that found diminution in value in Japanese knotweed cases was irrecoverable economic loss and ordered the council to pay damages to a property owner.

The Law Society of England and Wales has published a guide for conveyancers on the Building Safety Act 2022.

The Local Government Association has called for changes to the Right to Buy (RTB) scheme in order to prevent the current net loss of social housing stock year on year currently being experienced by local authorities.

The Government has launched consultations on changes to national policy to strengthen planning support for brownfield development, and further changes to permitted development rights (PDRs).

Welsh councils could provide more homes without environmental damage on brownfield sites if they took a more interventionist and collaborative approach, the Auditor General for Wales has said.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has welcomed Government proposals for greater flexibility in the use of capital receipts but warned this would make only a marginal difference to the financial plight facing most councils.

The British Library is seeking to appoint a legal services provider that will work within its governance and statutory frameworks “to advise and transact on, structure and prepare the relevant documentation for complex property matters”.

The First-Tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) has ordered two property firms to pay nearly £18m for post-Grenfell works on blocks in the former Olympic Village in east London.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal in the high-profile case between Dartmoor landowners and the Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNPA) over the lawfulness of wild camping.

Specialist property law firm Davitt Jones Bould has strengthened its public sector practice with the appointment of Sandy Munroe as partner.

The Government is to hand back some powers to Liverpool City Council before June 2024, after Commissioners expressed confidence in the leadership of the local authority.

The Housing Ombudsman has provided updated guidance on the “often contentious” area of service charges in its latest Insight report.

The Open Spaces Society has hailed a planning inspector’s decision that Blackbushe airport should remain part of a common after a seven-year dispute.

The Supreme Court has held that the court has power to grant 'newcomer injunctions' aimed at stopping unauthorised encampments by unknown persons but only in circumstances where there is a "compelling need" to protect civil rights or to enforce public law that is not adequately met by other available remedies.

The Supreme Court will next week (29 November) hand down a ruling on whether courts can grant final injunctions that prevent persons, who are unknown and unidentified as at the date of the order, from occupying and trespassing on land.

The influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned that the school estate has deteriorated to the point where 700,000 pupils are learning in a school that needs “major rebuilding or refurbishment”.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published two 'working papers' seeking feedback on its assessment of the use of landbanks, and how planning rules concerning zoning, consultations and local plan processes may be impacting competition and how new homes are delivered.

The number of empty homes in England has risen by nearly 10% and past the million mark in the past five years, to the equivalent of just over 1% of the country’s housing stock, the Local Government Association (LGA) had claimed.

An academy school intends to take Bristol City Council to court in a dispute over playing fields.

Enfield Council is set to face a judicial review of its proposal to lease part of a public park and shuttered golf course to a football club, after a group of local residents argued against the plans on environmental grounds.

Maidenhead United Football Club has said it is preparing to take legal action for breach of contract after the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead axed a plan for the club to move to a new ground.

Newham is understood to have become the first local authority in Britain to successfully prosecute a building owner for failing to remove flammable cladding.

The London Borough of Lambeth has admitted to spending more than £1.8m on legal fees for non-disclosure agreements with leaseholders.