FOI request (FOIR-145903425)

We write to request information from your authority’s housing department which Shelter believes to be relevant to the Court’s decision in this case and which it therefore wishes to place before the Court to assist it in making its decision. The information Shelter seeks relates to homeless applicants and county court appeals against your authority’s decisions, pursuant to section 204 of the Housing Act 1996 (HA 96), and is set out in further detail below.

We would be grateful if you would provide us with answers to the following questions:

1. How many decisions has your authority made in the last three years (from 2015/16 to 2018/19) under section 202 HA 96 that contained an outcome adverse to the applicant?

2. How many section 204 HA 96 appeals have been issued in the county courts against decisions made by your authority in the last three years (from 2015/16 to 2018/19)?

a. How many of those section 204 HA 96 appeals were issued by litigants in person who did not have legal representatives at the time of issuing?

i. How many of those litigants in person from section a above subsequently acquired legal representation before the hearing of the appeal?

ii. How many of those litigants in person from section a above were provided with temporary accommodation by your authority pending the outcome of the homeless review?

iii. How many of those litigants in person from section a above were provided with temporary accommodation by your authority pending the outcome of their appeal?

b. What was the outcome of those section 204 HA 96 appeals issued by litigants in person?

c. How many of those section 204 HA 96 appeals were issued by litigants who had legal representation?

d. What was the outcome of those section 204 HA 96 appeals issued by litigants who had legal representation?

e. For those appeals which did not proceed to final hearing, how many of those were withdrawn by the applicant, and how many were withdrawn or settled as a result of your authority’s housing department agreeing to quash the decision under appeal and reconsider the matter?