Many housing associations appear to be in shock after a High Court ruling that their tenants can now take their landlords to a Judicial Review in a similar way as local authority tenants.Inside Housing this week has headlines such as “Ruling threatens HA independence” and “Landlords teeter on brink..” while the normally sensible editor, Kate Murray, has an article titled “Freedom fighters face new threat”?
I am not sure that this is actually the end of the world, as we now know it. No doubt if possible, there will be some sort of appeal and maybe a clause or two in the Housing and Regeneration Bill could change things. However, very significant sums of public money are spent by housing associations on services, so having the possible brake of a judicial review, from time to time, should not be dismissed with so much “doom and gloom”.
Liberty legal officer is quoted in 24dash.com as saying "The public will be delighted to see that human rights aren't just for criminal suspects but for everyone." Which I think is equally OTT.
