This webinar is brought to you by the Garden Court Chambers Housing Team.
| Date: | Wednesday 29 March 2023 |
|---|---|
| Cost: | Free |
| Areas of Law: | Housing Law |
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) is a recurring theme in housing matters, with each new judgment adding another layer of sophistication and complexity to the law. This webinar took stock of the current position of the PSED authorities, as well as considered points that may arise in future possession, homelessness and judicial review cases.
The speakers looked, in particular, at what housing lawyers can learn from the PSED authorities in other areas of law, discuss possible developments in housing litigation, and explore points that solicitors may wish to raise in their casework.
While there is now a comprehensive body of case law concerning disability, poor housing outcomes in respect of other protected characteristics (particularly race and sex) is an under-examined issue. The Garden Court Housing Team led a discussion about the role that the PSED can play in challenging structural housing disadvantage, for example, in out-of-borough placement policies affecting low-income households and racialised people’s experiences in social housing.
A new book on the PSED, A Practical Guide to the Public Sector Equality Duty in Housing, has recently been published by Nick Bano of the Housing Team.
Speaker Panel
Georgie Rea (Chair), Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Georgie has a detailed knowledge of possession proceedings, having previously worked as a self-employed County Court Advocate. She regularly conducts work across all areas of housing law, including homelessness, possession and disrepair, in addition to accommodation-related aspects of community care law. She provides practical advice relating to directions, evidence and creative settlement solutions in complex cases. Georgie has successfully defended possession claims brought by both private and public landlords, on statutory and public law grounds.
Adrian Marshall Williams, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Adrian practices across the range of housing and property law. His practice encompasses many types of possession claims. He has wide-ranging experience in cases involving mental health or capacity issues and being instructed by the Official Solicitor on behalf of protected parties. Adrian's work in housing law has a significant focus on acting for occupiers in complicated anti-social behaviour cases, and raising public law defences as well as tenancy deposit scheme cases, succession cases, mortgage possession proceedings and claims under the Trusts of Land and Appointment of Trustees Act 1996.
As an experienced property litigator, he also advises and represents in other property-related disputes such as service charges. He also regularly advises and represents clients in areas such as right-to-buy cases, unlawful eviction, harassment and disrepair.
Nick Bano, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Nick Bano specialises in representing homeless people, residential occupiers, and destitute & migrant households in both public law and private law disputes. He has acted in many of the most important housing law cases in recent years. The legal directories consistently recognise his expertise in this field, as well as his inventiveness and commitment to his clients.
Nick has a particular specialism in cases where social entitlements overlap with equality and discrimination law. He has been instructed in many of the key cases in this area, including TM v Metropolitan, Forward v Aldwyck and London & Quadrant v Patrick (on the Public Sector Equality Duty in housing possession claims) and Adesotu v Lewisham (on discrimination against homelessness applicants). Nick is the author of A Practical Guide to the Public Sector Equality in Housing (2023).
