Riccardo Calzavara
Riccardo specialises in public law and judicial review, housing and homelessness, property law, and planning.
Practice Areas
Panels
- Case Analysis Panel
- Contributing Author
- Q&A Panel
Qualified Year
- 2013
Membership
- ALBA
- HLPA
- SHLA
Education
- BA (Hons) Industrial Economics
- MA (Lond) Philosophy
3 Contributions by Riccardo Calzavara
PRACTICE NOTES
Local housing authority allocations: decisions, eligibility and qualification, internal reviews, reasonable preference and judicial review, including discrimination challenges (England and Wales)
This Practice Note clarifies that a local housing authority (LHA) may allocate housing accommodation as it thinks suitable, reflecting the needs of the local community, set out within a published allocation plan. When an application is submitted, it must be examined and a determination reached by applying the published allocation criteria. An applicant is entitled to seek a review of refusals and to be told the outcome on review together with the reasons for it. It also identifies when a challenge is governed by statute, and when it ought to be brought by judicial review.
Applications for housing—decisions
An LHA is required to assess every application for the allocation of accommodation made in line with the procedural requirements of its allocation scheme. So long as it is evident that proper consideration has been given, the court is unlikely to disturb the LHA’s approach. In R (on the application of Heaney) v Lambeth Borough Council, Collins J rejected the claim for judicial review on the basis that the LHA’s approach was not unlawful. An LHA must also provide, at no cost, any assistance that is necessary to enable an applicant to make such an application...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
Social housing allocation schemes: reasonable and additional preference, qualification rules, Armed Forces priority and key authorities (England and Wales)
Reasonable preference
A local housing authority (LHA) must operate an allocation scheme that sets out how priorities are decided and describes the processes to be used when allocating accommodation. That scheme has to be designed to provide reasonable preference to applicants who come within the reasonable preference groups. The obligation to ensure that preference is given to applicants in these groups is the primary statutory requirement placed on LHAs regarding overall prioritisation, and it rests on the applicant’s housing need...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
Statutory framework and practice for local authority social housing allocations in England and Wales: schemes, transfers, choice-based lettings, guidance and equality law
The allocation of social housing by local housing authorities (LHAs) in England and Wales is regulated by Pt VI of the Housing Act 1996 (HA 1996).
HA 1996 brought together all prior statutes on the provision of social housing and has subsequently been substantially revised by the Homelessness Act 2002 (HA 2002), the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, the Localism Act 2011 (LA 2011), and the Housing (Wales) Act 2014. Further amendments have been made through the following statutory instruments:
Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 (Consequential Provisions) Order 2010, SI 2010/866
Housing Act 1996 (Additional Preference for Armed Forces) (England) Regulations 2012, SI 2012/2989
Universal Credit (Consequential, Supplementary, Incidental and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2013, SI 2013/630
Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (Consequential Amendments) (Wales) Order 2015, SI 2015/1321
Pt VI of HA 1996 (allocation) and Pt VII (homelessness) operate in tandem as related frameworks delivering two distinct routes to social housing assistance. Part VI focuses chiefly on the grant of introductory and secure tenancies, including flexible tenancies (see section 107A of the Housing Act 1985); Part VII is concerned with people who are homeless...
Local Government
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