London borough agrees to amend housing allocation scheme

The London Borough of Hackney has agreed as part of a settlement of a claim for judicial review to amend its housing allocation scheme under Part 6 of the Housing Act 1996, and ensure people can make applications under it.

Doughty Street Chambers, whose Daniel Clarke acted for claimant SA, said Hackney had also agreed that as soon as reasonably practicable, and after all existing households on the register are re-registered onto new software, it will ensure that its Part 6 application form is generally available to prospective applicants on the relevant section of its website.

The case arose because applications for housing must be made using an online form on Hackney’s website, but for more than 18 months since this system was adopted in October 2021, the relevant page stated the council was piloting an application form with a random sample of residents and anyone else who wanted to register should do so by telephone.

SA also complained that Hackney’s scheme confined eligibility to join the housing register on grounds of homelessness is limited to those to whom the main homelessness duty in s193 HA 1996 has been accepted.

This was contrary to the requirement to afford ‘reasonable preference’ to all who are homeless or threatened with homelessness set out in s166A(3) HA 1996.

SA’s claim for judicial review challenged Hackney over a failure to provide any means for making a Part 6 application on its website, failure to provide SA with assistance to make an application given her limited knowledge of English and its restriction of qualification on grounds of homelessness.

After SA issued the claim Hackney sent her a unique link to make a Part 6 application and provided assistance.

Doughty Street said Hackney had agreed within 28 days to update its website to make it clear that would-be applicants who telephone will be sent a link to the application immediately, rather than having to wait until the release of a new version of the form.

The council also agreed within 90 days to remove the restriction on qualification for its housing register on grounds of homelessness.

Hackney did not respond to a request comment.

Mark Smulian