Legal News

What are the practical implications of this case? HMO licensing aims to keep shared accommodation properly run and safe for residents. This judgment underlines the stringent bar for co‑operative societies trying to claim an HMO licensing exemption. Any organisation seeking to rely on it must have rules that explicitly require members to take every management decision; such powers cannot be handed to a committee. If a committee holds independent decision‑making authority, the exemption will not apply. H35 will probably now need to secure licences for all of its HMOs. The ruling brings welcome clarity to how HA 2004 operates and confirms that organisations cannot sidestep licensing duties through technical readings of constitutional rules that do not mirror genuine governance. It confirms that the exemption in HA 2004, Sch 14, para 2B applies only where members themselves make all management decisions....

R ( On the Application of Oliver Perrin) v North Devon District Council [2026] EWHC 535 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The decision serves as a clear reminder that, even when officers characterise the planning balance as finely poised, a committee that diverges from a reasoned recommendation must still articulate why, showing how the central policy tension has been addressed. The judgment also emphasises the need to manage councillor involvement with care in contentious planning matters. In combination, informal associations with applicants, earlier assistance, public endorsements, and a leading role in committee debate can generate an appearance of bias, even if no actual impropriety is established. Authorities and their advisers should examine such concerns at an early stage, and members should err on the side of caution where continued participation might later jeopardise the decision’s...

Muller UK and Ireland Group LLP and others v HMRC [2026] EWCA Civ 248 The second, third and fourth appellants (the Corporate Members) were part of the Muller multinational corporate group trading in dairy products. In 2013, those appellants moved their respective trades and assets, including intellectual property and goodwill, to the fourth appellant, Muller UK and Ireland Group LLP ( LLP), receiving membership units in the LLP in exchange. The LLP recorded amortisation of the assets and goodwill (the Material Assets) in its accounts on a straight-line basis over five years. When calculating their taxable profits from the LLP for the 2013–18 accounting periods, the Corporate Members claimed deductions for that amortisation under Part 8 of the Corporation Tax Act 2009 ( CTA 2009). HMRC rejected the claims on the footing that the Material Assets did not satisfy the Part 8...

In this issue: Local government reorganisation Public procurement Education Governance Children's social care Planning Social housing Adult social care Local government finance Licensing Pensions Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Local government reorganisation The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has written to Surrey’s council leaders confirming that the Surrey ( Structural Changes) Order 2026 has been made, following approval by both Houses of Parliament, and took effect on 10 March 2026. The Order replaces Surrey County Council and the 11 district and borough councils with two new unitary authorities as part of the county’s local government reshaping. See: LNB News 11/03/2026 34. Public procurement The Cabinet Office has issued guidance setting out when the next transparency duties under the phased implementation of the Procurement Act 2023 will apply. The note...

What are the practical implications of the case? As the Supreme Court recognised, the most immediate and concrete consequences of this ruling will be experienced in Northern Ireland, where both government and educators will have to review how religious teaching and worship are delivered in practice, and the practical workability and accessibility of opt‑outs, so as to secure compliance with A2P1. Looking more widely, the Court’s judgment—particularly its endorsement of the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling in Folgerø v Norway (2007) 46 EHRR 47 (not reported by Lexis+® UK)—makes clear that merely providing opt‑outs from specified religious education or school practices will, taken alone, seldom avert a breach of A2P1 if those religious components of the curriculum are not communicated to pupils in an objective, critical and pluralistic way. What was the background? The case concerned JR87, a child enrolled at a...

Duffy v Birmingham City Council [2026] EWCA Civ 146 What are the practical implications of this case? Failure to meet compulsory rules regulating the format or contents of a costs bill does not, of itself, render it void. Even where the mandatory certification confirming compliance with the indemnity principle is absent, a signed bill may nonetheless be validly served and remains sufficient to commence detailed assessment proceedings. Accordingly, paying parties ought to engage with the detailed assessment procedure rather than presuming an alleged irregularity is fatal. Any contention about the bill’s structure or contents should be articulated in Points of Dispute and served within the prescribed time limits. Where a default costs certificate has been obtained, the simple absence of an express indemnity certification will not, without more, make the bill invalid so as to justify setting the certificate aside as of...

In this issue: Local government reorganisation Public procurement Local government finance Children’s social care Governance Planning Environmental law and climate change Education Social housing Licensing Adult social care Lex Talk®Local Government: a Lexis®Nexis community Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Local government reorganisation Petitions Committee debates powers to cancel local elections The Petitions Committee held a parliamentary debate on a petition signed by over 152,000 people seeking to remove the Secretary of State’s power to cancel local elections. The petition asks for legislative change to strip this authority in relation to forthcoming local government, metropolitan borough, London borough and other polls, including those planned for May 2026. In its 5 January 2026 response, the government said these powers stem from primary legislation and are used only where there is strong...

Rates mitigation scheme for hereditament claimed as leased as a place of worship held invalid ( A& P68 Ltd v City of Bradford MDC) A& P68 Ltd v City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council [2026] EWHC 27 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of the case? This ruling aligns with the prevailing stream of authority that reduces the effectiveness of business rates avoidance arrangements in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Rossendale BC v Hurstwood Properties Ltd [2022] AC 690. Additional confirmation can be found in Wigan Council and others v Property Alliance Group Ltd [2025] EWHC 2336 ( Ch) and R (on the application of Emeraldshaw Ltd) v Sheffield Magistrates' Court [2025] EWCA Civ 1601, with the courts acknowledging that Parliament is not generally taken to have intended tax exemption for transactions serving no purpose other than avoiding...

Wiltshire Council v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and another [2026] EWHC 463 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling clarifies that occurrences arising after a valid planning determination cannot later be used to undo that lawful decision. Although case law allows fresh material to be deployed in challenges to show an error of fact, that strand is confined to misapprehensions of a settled and relevant fact. Here, nothing new established any factual error by the inspector when deciding: the fire damage was not present on the date of decision. The blaze occurred afterwards; accordingly, the inspector’s decision was not rendered unfair. The judgment also underlines that the current statutory planning regime supplies suitable tools to address altered circumstances, whether by applications under section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 ( TCPA 1990) or by...

Medway Council v The Father and another [2026] EWHC 236 ( Fam) What are the practical implications of the case? The practical implications of this case are as follows: a prompt to practitioners that a parent with parental responsibility for a child under 16 can agree to that child being deprived of liberty, ‘provided that said parental consent does not leave that child without safeguards’ in evaluating the ‘zone of parental responsibility’, age is pertinent but not conclusive. Ms Justice Henke stated the ‘zone of parental responsibility’ is fact-specific and ‘it is more appropriate to consider the characteristics of the individual child in question than to compare them to a hypothetical child of the same age’. Henke J further confirmed that the ‘zone of parental responsibility constricts as the child is able to make decisions for themselves’ and that ‘what falls within the zone of...

R ( OAJ) v His Majesty’s Treasury and another [2026] EWHC 191 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of the case? The ruling highlights the considerable hurdles in contesting eligibility rules tied to the ‘no recourse to public funds’ approach. The court criticised the claimants’ contention that their exclusion conflicted with the purpose of the Child Care Payments Act 2014 and the Child Care Act 2016, calling it a policy or political stance presented as a legal point. Practitioners should note that courts allow the state a broad margin of appreciation when determining how scarce resources are distributed. Challenges to benefit schemes are likely to fail where the state can properly justify different treatment by pointing to the need to restrict certain groups of migrants’ access to public services. The judgment also usefully surveys case law on the PSED and reiterates that the court’s...

In this issue: Local government reorganisation Education Children's social care Adult social care Social housing Planning Judicial review Public procurement Local government finance Licensing Pensions Daily and weekly news alerts New and updated content Local government reorganisation IPPR report recommends democratic reforms for English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill IPPR North released analysis exploring the democratic effects of the government’s push to create unitary councils under the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. The study reviews plans to scrap the remaining two-tier county and district councils—covering roughly 29% of England—and replace them with larger unitary bodies. Ministers contend that unitarisation will streamline administration, raise efficiency and support mayoral devolution, yet it flags democratic downsides: fewer councillors, less frequent elections, and a wider gap between communities and...

The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Various Leaseholders of Brewster House and Malting House [2025] EWCA Civ 1591 What are the practical implications of this case? This important ruling on service charges and lease construction for housing, real estate and local authority practitioners in the context of building safety remediation confirms a clear approach: broad “sweeper” management or safety clauses and wide, catch‑all expenditure wording will not readily be read as passing the cost of remedying inherent, pre‑existing structural faults to leaseholders. The courts will scrutinise context, the way clause lists are structured, and the commercial ramifications, and will require unequivocal wording before concluding that leaseholders accepted a potentially ruinous exposure for structural defect remediation. For Right to Buy leases in particular, the statutory scheme forms part of the relevant background because Parliament has expressly governed...

What is the purpose of, and key provisions of, these Regulations? Created under the Building Safety Act 2022 ( BSA 2022) as a central pillar of its reform of the building safety system, the Building Safety Regulator ( BSR) was initially housed within the Health and Safety Executive ( HSE), conferring significant new duties over the safety and performance of all buildings, irrespective of height. The BSR’s remit is extensive and includes, among other things, monitoring the effectiveness and performance of the building control profession, advising on revisions to procedural elements and functional requirements within the building regulations, and raising the competence of everyone engaged in the construction sector. The BSR acts as the building control authority for higher-risk buildings and serves as the safety regulator for occupied buildings. In June 2025, the government announced reforms to the BSR, including...

Simkova v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2025] UKSC 41 What are the practical implications of this case? First, it is settled that EU nationals living in the UK, whose children reside in an EU member state, cannot receive the Universal Credit child element for those children. This holds even where the parent pays towards the children’s maintenance and support, notwithstanding the realities of cross‑border family life. Second, the judgment shows the courts continue to grapple with dense EU law even after Brexit, specifically in areas where the UK‑ EU Withdrawal Agreement preserves direct effect. It underscores the ongoing need to interpret and apply those preserved rules when they bear on disputes arising in the domestic benefits system, for cases such as this. Third, this appeal did not give the Supreme Court an opportunity to define the scope of its discretion to seek a CJEU...

R ( MXV) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2026] EWHC 251 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling will upend the long-established way in which unlawful detention claims for immigration detainees are pursued. For many years, the orthodox view has been that Article 5 ECHR contributes nothing beyond the domestic tort of false imprisonment, so Article 5 was typically tagged on as an afterthought, if pleaded at all. Yet in MXV at §170, the court signalled that IMA 2003 does not alter how the Court will consider Article 5 ECHR, and therefore has no bearing on the analytical framework the court applies under that Article. Consequently, Article 5 ECHR is now poised to become the primary route by which immigration detainees seek to secure release from custody. Practically,...

R (on the application of UYR) v Derby City Council & others [2025] EWHC 2081 ( Admin) What are the practical implications of this case? The claimant’s only disputed application related to interim relief. A dispute arose and continued between the two local authorities ( Derby CC and Manchester CC) over which authority ought to accommodate the claimant. The decision underscores the importance of securing professional supporting evidence before inviting the High Court to apply well-established principles governing age disputes. Deputy High Court Judge Karen Ridge was persuaded by three principal items of evidence: A decision by A& E staff to admit the claimant to a children’s ward and to make a safeguarding referral to the local children’s services authority; A decision by the local children’s services authority to accommodate the claimant with other children in line with their Ch A 1989, s 20...

Hampshire County Council v GC and another [2026] EWCA Civ 20 What are the practical implications of this case? The Court of Appeal sets out clear guidance for local authorities on the breadth of their duties to maintain an EHCP, particularly where a child or young person has more than one address, including looked-after children or those with separated parents. The judgment confirms that the obligation to maintain an EHCP turns on the child or young person’s ‘ordinary residence’, rather than where they happen to be physically located. Accordingly, a local authority continues to owe duties to those who are only temporarily away from its area, or even overseas, provided they remain ordinarily resident there. Identifying a child or young person’s ordinary place of residence is a mixed question of fact and law, demanding careful assessment before deciding to cease maintaining an EHCP. The ruling also...

Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council v EKK (by her litigation friend, the Official Solicitor) [2025] EWCOP 42 What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling reaffirms that the capacity to marry is tied to the ‘act’ or ‘status’ itself, not to a particular ‘person’ or prospective ‘spouse’. Accordingly, when assessing P, the enquiry is whether P can decide to marry at all, rather than whether they can decide to marry a specific individual. Nonetheless, stepping back, the decision may muddy the waters more than it clarifies. Practically, a person might be judged to have capacity to marry on an ‘act’/‘status’ basis, yet lack capacity to have contact with the person they wish to marry, which is a ‘person’ specific assessment. The court was not called upon to resolve how these positions interact, though the judge did note the peculiarity of P having capacity to marry but not to...

WM v Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust [2025] UKUT 396 ( AAC) What are the practical implications of this case? The ruling confirms that the FTT may issue a statutory recommendation even where a clinician has already approved a form of leave under Me HA 1983, s 17. This gives the FTT greater latitude to decide which type of leave is most suitable for a patient at their particular point in treatment. It removes an unnecessary impediment to progression planning and makes clear that the FTT can recommend options that differ from, or go beyond, those currently in place. The judgment also broadens the FTT’s ability to make strategic recommendations that foster phased rehabilitation. The UT concluded that the FTT’s discretion to recommend is intended to identify the most effective route forward for the patient, and that successful unescorted leave can support...