In the fourth session of our Civil Fraud Webinar Series 2024 - 2025, Andrew Carter and Paul Fuller review the law, together with some recent authorities, and discuss practical and tactical considerations in relation to property fraud; real, personal, legal and equitable. Read more
The Housing, Communities and Local Government (HCLG) Committee has launched an inquiry that will consider potential new mechanisms for land value capture (LVC) in order to help boost house building and fund affordable housing and public infrastructure.
Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing (MTVH) and St James, a subsidiary of the Berkeley Group, have reached a settlement with the residents of a block of flats destroyed by a fire in 2019.
Raising the threshold at which councils must set up a separate financial management account for their council housing, known as the Housing Revenue Account (HRA), could unlock up to 88,000 additional council homes, the District Councils' Network has said.
The Local Government Association (LGA) has called on the Government to go further with its reforms of Right to Buy (RTB) to give local authorities more influence over how the scheme operates locally amid rising demand to buy homes through the scheme.
The Law Commission has published a consultation paper on compulsory purchase, as part of its review of the current "complex and inaccessible" law on compulsory purchase and compensation.
The Government has detailed a series of reforms aimed at expanding and simplifying compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) in a consultation launched today (19 December).
The London Borough of Hackney has lost a Court of Appeal case over the eligibility for right to buy of a rabbi who occupied a home for only part of the time.
Tower Hamlets Council has secured a remediation order requiring the owners of a high-rise building to remove dangerous aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding.
As we hit the ground running in 2025, Daniel Searle looks back at some of the key developments of the Building Safety Act (“BSA”) in 2024 and opines on where we may be headed in the future.
James Mallery-Nelson analyses a 1996 High Court decision that established a key precedent, providing commercial landlords with a common law mechanism to enforce tenants’ repairing obligations under their leases.
The Upper Tribunal has clarified the FTT’s limits on policy interpretation in a dispute over a financial penalty imposed on a letting agent by a local authority. Riccardo Calzavara analyses the ruling.
A Divisional Court recently upheld a district judge’s decision in a case over licensing of houses in multiple occupation (HMO) used for asylum seekers. The decision is of significant public importance concerning the enforcement of housing standards in HMOs, write Stephanie Harrison KC and Tim Baldwin.
A High Court judge has coined a new legal stock phrase in a judgment about the meaning of a stock transfer agreement. Matt Hutchings KC explains the ruling.
The Government is to set target dates for unsafe buildings in England to be fixed as part of a new Remediation Acceleration Plan to be unveiled today (2 December).
The Government is to consult on a raft of changes to the ‘Right to Buy’ scheme including extending the length of time someone has to be a tenant before they can buy their home and protecting newly built social homes from sale through exemptions.
The Law Commission has released its first consultation paper on the right to renew business tenancies under Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, also known as 'security of tenure'.
Cheshire East Council has been fined £500,000 after an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that the death of a dog walker in August 2020, killed by a falling tree, might have been avoided had the public area been better managed.
Woking Borough Council's former monitoring officer failed to challenge the former chief executive officer and former s151 officer over decisions to borrow large sums of money with no credible plan for repayment, a public interest report on the council's governance arrangements has concluded.
The High Court has refused an application by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to stay three judicial review claims challenging various provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024.
The scale of the cladding crisis has "proved much bigger than the government initially understood", and up to 60% of buildings with dangerous cladding remain to be identified, a National Audit Office (NAO) report has suggested.
The Supreme Court has this month refused an application for permission to appeal against the Court of Appeal’s judgment in a dispute over the deregistration of town and village greens (TVGs).
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) is seeking permission to intervene in a Court of Appeal case relating to housing energy efficiency standards, which the watchdog said would set a precedent concerning how the government takes account of environmental issues in its policies.
The London Borough of Haringey has successfully defended a judicial review claim brought by a private homeowner in a lengthy dispute concerning its decision to fell a street tree thought to be causing subsidence.
The High Court has granted Thurrock Council and Essex County Council a five-year injunction subject to yearly review against persons unknown in response to protest activity by Just Stop Oil.
A resident who objected to the London Borough of Enfield selling part of a park to Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has been refused permission to appeal in his challenge to the disposal.
External auditors at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead have voiced "significant concerns" over the council's governance arrangements in light of delayed financial statements, alongside concerns about debt associated with a wholly-owned property company.
External auditors have flagged "significant" weaknesses in control processes relating to Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council's disposal of assets, and have suggested that members were not "seriously considering" officer recommendations concerning the council's finances.
Private and social rented homes are set to be required to achieve Energy Performance Certificate C or equivalent by 2030 in a series of Government measures to improve home energy standards.
The London Borough of Newham has a lost a £1.6m case over an attempt to judicially review a decision by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on whether a floating hotel is a building for Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) purposes.
London’s leading grant-giving charity has issued judicial review proceedings against the government, arguing that the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (LFRA 24) will “jeopardize the financial stability and operational capacity of a handful of charities that depend on property assets for funding”.
Officers at Fareham Borough Council have "regrettably" recommended councillors to lift a set of tree preservation orders to avoid hefty compensation claims, just months after the council's leader called legislative reforms on the matter
The Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, and Building Safety Minister, Rushanara Ali, have set out expectations for regulators and partners to “increase the pace” of remediating unsafe buildings, following a fire at a block of flats in Dagenham.
Commissioners have called for a "rigorous" lessons learned process at Birmingham City Council after the financially beleaguered local authority agreed to sell more than 700 properties at an estimated loss of around £320m.
The Charity Commission has seen a significant number of cases where local authorities have failed to comply with their legal duties as charity trustees and the watchdog has had to take action following receipt of complaints from the public, its new chief executive has warned.
The London Borough of Enfield has secured interim injunctions against the occupants of boats and land on the River Lea who it has claimed obstruct progress on a £6bn development of 10,000 homes.
David Firth and Mathieu Quenin set out the key implications for Registered Providers and developers from the Government’s Remediation Acceleration Plan.
The Government has confirmed that councils will have the power to hold high street rental auctions from 2 December. Lucy McDonnell and Megan Forbes look at how the regime will work, including from a planning perspective.
Is a roof garden a "storey" for the purposes of higher-risk buildings? Alex Martin Diaz and Corinna Whittle analyse a recent tribunal case and the government’s response to the ruling.
A recent High Court case has provided a reminder that care must be taken to distinguish between “commencement” cases and “continuous use” cases based on immunity, writes Roderick Morton.
Robert Bowker considers how the First-tier Tribunal (FTT) has dealt with fire safety cases where an improvement notice under the Housing Act 2004 has been served and an application for a remediation order under s. 123 of the Building Safety Act 2022 has been made.
Jen Ashwell considers some of the key recent CPO and compensation decisions and highlights key takeaways that will be of interest to acquiring authorities, claimants (and their advisors) and local planning authorities.
How do registered providers manage risk in relation to Management Companies providing services to their Estates? Rose Klemperer, Wendy Wilks and Alice Watkins explain.
For certain land transactions involving school land, including granting leases to third parties, you may be required to obtain consent from or notify the Secretary of State (SoS). New freedoms have also been introduced in the September 2024 Academy Trust Handbook relating to finance leases. Andrea Squires, Zahraa Ilmass and Sonia Din look at the key points.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Anglo International Upholland Ltd v Wainwright [2023] 5 WLUK 613 confirmed the court’s power to grant injunctions against so-called ‘newcomers’. In the second of two articles, Helena Davies, Oskar Musial, Laura Tweedy and Gemma de Cordova consider the recent developments in newcomer injunctions and how that was dealt with in Upholland.
A recent landmark decision may allow novel and unusual methods of service in welcome news for landowners who seek to prevent trespassing by persons unknown, write Helena Davies, Oskar Musial, Laura Tweedy and Gemma de Cordova.
Spencer Vella Sultana and Wilton Thomas examine the further changes to building safety legislation likely following the report published this month as part of the second phase of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
Steve Gummer and Shyann Sheehy talk through the recent Construction Leadership Council guidance on a ‘Golden Thread’ of information as part of a new regulatory regime for Higher-Risk Buildings.
The Charity Commission has issued a warning to local authorities over the failure to comply with legal duties as charity trustees. Paul Hilsdon looks at the steps councils should take.