GOVAN Law Centre has today lodged a petition for judicial review at Scotland’s Court of Session on behalf of a client challenging a social landlord’s refusal to award the highest rehousing priority for exceptional housing need (Band A).
The challenge concerns how housing allocation policies are applied where disability-related needs and other circumstances, considered together, may require urgent rehousing.
The petition argues that the landlord applied an additional requirement not contained in its published policy, interpreted its discretion too rigidly and failed properly to assess the combined effect of the relevant circumstances. It also challenges the decision as unreasonable and alleges a failure to comply with the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010.
A central issue is whether an existing award of ordinary housing priority adequately answers a separate request for exceptional and urgent rehousing. The client’s case is that this requires a genuine assessment of the circumstances as a whole, rather than consideration of individual needs in isolation.
The Court is being asked to declare the refusal unlawful, set it aside and require a fresh decision applying the published policy and the law. The petition does not ask the Court to allocate a particular property. These are the grounds advanced in the challenge, not findings made by the Court.
Mike Dailly, Solicitor Advocate, is instructed to act by Lorna Walker, Senior Solicitor & Theano Georgiadi, Legal Caseworker, within Govan Law Centre’s Women’s Rights Project. Laura McDonagh, Partner at Drummond Miller LLP, is Edinburgh agent. The petition will first be assessed by a Lord Ordinary to decide whether or not it has a real prospect of success for permission to proceed
