MSB’s Social Housing Highlight – January 2024
Welcome to MSB’s monthly Social Housing Newsletter!
Bringing you all the latest updates from the world of Social Housing.
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The latest at MSB
Happy New Year to all our clients, partners and friends. We hope you had a lovely break.
We have hit the ground running in 2024 and have some exciting news. We are launching an online legal surgery: MSB Live! It will be held on the 3rd Wednesday of every month between 2pm and 4pm and hosted by our expert team. We will be there to answer any legal queries, from housing management to asset and property management, governance and ASB. There will be private break-out rooms within the virtual legal surgery for you to discuss any legal queries privately with a specialist solicitor. More information about how to register your place for the legal surgery will be sent out soon. Watch this space!
Our free webinar this month was hosted by Andy Moore, who was joined by Kayley Hyman from Holistic Hoarding to discuss hoarding and housing management. Thank you to everyone who joined us for the session, we had some great feedback. We also hosted some bespoke online training sessions for clients. If you are interested in arranging training sessions with the team, please contact dominiqueowens@msbsolicitors.co.uk.
Abigail Eves, one of our brilliant paralegals, has been busy arranging a fantastic event alongside Bradbury Fields, to raise money for their organisation. Bradbury Fields is a local charity who support people living with sensory loss. Abbie will be hosting a Sensory Soiree “Dining in the Dark” experience on 16th February 2024, with all proceeds going directly to Bradbury Fields. If you would like to attend, please contact abigaileves@msbsolicitors.co.uk.
We love supporting great causes, so if you have any projects you would like us to get involved with, please contact thomasstockton@msbsolicitors.co.uk.
We also love celebrating, and this month, Solicitor Julia Michalczyk attended the Liverpool Law Society celebration for new entrants. Julia qualified as a solicitor in September and is a great asset to our team.
Our Book Club reads this month are ‘Stone Blind’ By Natalie Haynes, ‘In Memoriam’ by Alice Winn and ‘The Twyford Code’ by Janice Hallett. If you are going to give any of these books a try, please let us know your thoughts and we can add your review to our book club newsletter. Read the latest newsletter here.
Updates and insight
Raihan Arif summaries the recent Supreme Court decision in Wolverhampton City Council v London Gypsies and Travellers, here.
Andrew Moore provides an update on the case law dealing with reliance on excluded grounds of possession and mandatory grounds for possession in Hopkins and Finn applications, here.
Louise Murphy summaries the recent Housing Ombudsman report on service charges and the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction, here.
Beth McKeown highlights the key points of the consultation on Awaabs Law, here.
Tom Knox discusses the critical aspects of the Regulator of Social Housing’s consultation on its updated statutory guidance, here.
Julia Michalczyk has produced a helpful guide for landlords on the XL Bully ban, here.
Raihan Arif explains more about Dingers, TikTok Bikers and ASB, here.
Housing Law News
Awwab’s Law: Consultation on timescales for repairs in the social rented sector
On 9th January 2024 the Housing Secretary launched a consultation proposing new legal requirements in relation to timescales for repairs. The consultation will run for 8 weeks. You can find the consultation documents, here. Beth McKeown summarises the key points above.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
On 19th December 2023, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman published its annual report. Housing made up 14% of all complaints decided by the Ombudsman. You can read the report, here.
Local Housing Allowance Rates
On 9th January 2024, the DWP announced that legislation has been laid to introduce changes to the LHA rates. If the legislation is passed the new rates will come into effect from 1st April 2024 and can be found, here.
Greater Manchester Good landlord Charter Consultation
On 8th January 2024, Andy Burnham launched a consultation to improve standards of homes in both social housing and the private rented sector. The consultation is open until 26th February 2024 and more information can be found, here.
Housing for disabled people: Levelling Up Committee survey
On 18th January 2024, the House of Commons Levelling up Housing and Communities Committee launched an online survey regarding accessible and adaptable housing in England. The closing date is 15th February 2024. To take part, you can find the survey, here.
Upcoming events
7th February 2024
Our next free webinar “Housing Conditions and the consultation on Awaab’s Law” is with Louise Murphy, Thomas Stockton and Beth McKeown via Zoom. Please email dominiqueowens@msbsolicitors.co.uk to book your place. If you want to be added to our mailing list to receive updates on free training and events, please get in touch.
16th February 2024
Sensory Soiree 7pm at Bradbury Fields. Contact abigaileves@msbsolicitors.co.uk for tickets.
Case of the month
R N Restaurant (Stockport) Ltd, RE [2024] EWHC 69 (ch).
The importance of ensuring witness evidence is consistent throughout a case. Phillip Coburn provides a helpful summary, here.