Courts can grant ‘newcomer injunctions’ aimed at stopping unauthorised encampments but only where there is “a compelling need”: Supreme Court

November 29, 2023

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 unanimous ruling in Wolverhampton City Council and others (Respondents) v London Gypsies and Travellers and others (Appellants)) [2023] UKSC 47 also held that newcomer injunctions should only be made subject to procedural safeguards designed to protect newcomers’ rights.

The dispute dates back to 2015 when a number of local authorities began to seek interim and then final injunctions against unidentified and unknown persons who may in the future set up unauthorised encampments on local authority land (so-called “Newcomers”).

The persons concerned fall mainly into three categories, who would describe themselves as Romani Gypsies, Irish Travellers and New Travellers.

Between 2015 and 2020 38 local authorities obtained newcomer injunctions by relying on a range of statutory provisions, including section 187B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 which enables the court to grant an injunction to restrain an actual or anticipated breach of planning control.

From around mid-2020, the local authorities made applications to extend or vary injunctions which were coming to an end.

After hearing one of these cases, a High Court judge decided all newcomer injunctions affecting Gypsies and Travellers should be reviewed, and gave three appellants, London Gypsies and Travellers, Friends, Families and Travellers, and the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group permission to intervene.

In London Borough of Barking and Dagenham & Ors v Persons Unknown & Ors [2021] EWHC 1201 (QB) Mr Justice Nicklin in the High Court determined that final injunctions could not apply against newcomers who were not parties to the proceedings at the date that the injunction was ordered. He therefore discharged the injunction order.

In London Borough of Barking and Dagenham & Anor v Persons Unknown & Ors [2022] EWCA Civ 13, the Court of Appeal held that the court had the power to grant newcomer injunctions, and allowed the local authorities’ appeal.

The Supreme Court concluded that there was no reason why newcomer injunctions should never be granted and suggested that they were a valuable and proportionate remedy in appropriate cases. However, this did not mean that it would be appropriate for the court to grant a newcomer injunction in every case.

The Supreme Court said that in deciding whether it should grant a newcomer injunction, the court should have regard to the equitable principles it set out in its judgment, which require that newcomer injunctions should only be granted in certain circumstances, and subject to certain safeguards

It added that the applicable principles and safeguards would evolve over time in the light of the experience of the courts where applications for newcomer injunctions are made.

However, the court set out the following five requirements in order for an injunction to be justified:

The applicant local authority has demonstrated that, on the available evidence, there is a compelling need to protect civil rights or enforce public law that is not adequately met by any other remedies.
Procedural safeguards must be built into both the application and the court order. The application for the injunction should be advertised widely so that those likely to be affected by it (or bodies representing their interests like the appellants) are given a fair opportunity to make representations before the injunction is made. Once the injunction has been granted, it must be displayed in a prominent location at the affected site. Newcomers who become aware of it should have notified clearly to them the right to apply to court to have it varied or set aside, without having to show that circumstances have changed.
The applicant local authorities will be obliged to comply with a strict duty which requires them to disclose to the court (after due research) any matter which a newcomer might raise to oppose the making of the order.
Newcomer injunctions should be limited so that they do not apply for a disproportionately long time period or to a disproportionately wide geographical area.
The court must be satisfied that it is, on the particular facts of the case, just and convenient that a newcomer injunction is granted.

The Respondent(s) were: