Law Report: Settled home in temporary flat: Regina v Brent London Borough Council, Ex parte Awua - Court of Appeal (Lord Justice Dillon, Lord Justice Leggatt and Lord Justice Henry), 25 March 1994

Housing of a homeless person by a local authority in temporary accommodation as a stage to the provision of suitable permanent accommodation could be 'settled accommodation'; it was a question of fact and degree. A person who abandoned temporary accommodation which was settled accommodation rendered himself intentionally homeless.

The Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by the council and set aside Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC's order quashing Brent council's decision that the applicant was intentionally homeless.

The applicant and her two children were accepted by Tower Hamlets Borough Council as homeless with a priority and not intentionally homeless and were placed in temporary staging-post accommodation in a two-bedroom flat until suitable permanent accommodation could be found.

However, when permanent accommodation which Tower Hamlets considered suitable was offered, the applicant refused it. She was evicted by court order from the temporary accommodation and applied to Brent council, with whose area she had some connection, to be housed as a homeless person with a priority need.

Brent decided she was intentionally homeless because she refused suitable accommodation offered in Tower Hamlets and so did not owe her a duty under section 65 of the Housing Act 1985 to secure permanent accommodation for her.

On her application for judicial review of Brent's decision, Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC decided that temporary accommodation provided by a council could not be considered a 'settled residence' and so the applicant had remained homeless there, and on being evicted, could not be intentionally homeless.

Ashley Underwood (Council Solicitor) for the council; Terence Gallivan (TV Edwards & Co) for the applicant.

LORD JUSTICE DILLON said that in Din v Wandsworth LBC (1983) AC 657 Lord Justice Ackner said that 'what amounts to 'a settled residence' is a question of fact and degree depending upon the circumstances of each individual case'. In essence a 'settled residence meant a home. Therefore a person who became homeless would remain homeless until a 'settled residence' or home was acquired.

That applied notwithstanidng some precarious lodging in the interim. Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC concluded that in the context of public housing a homeless person did not achieve a 'settled residence' until accommodated in suitable permanent accommodation in final discharge of the local authority's obligation under section 65; temporary or staging post accommodation, however suitable, could not be enough.

Temporary accommodation and a settled residence were opposite sides of the same coin. The precise border line was question of fact and degree. But the generalisation that a homeless person did not achieve a 'settled residence' until he or she had been accommodated in suitable permanent accommodation went too far.

In public sector housing of a homeless person, it must be relevant to take into account that the local authority had accepted the full obligation under section 65 to provide permanent housing, even if the accommodation in question was merely a staging post to that end.

Bed and breakfast accommodation in a hotel was clearly only temporary and not a settled residence. Hostel accommodation for a mother or parents with small children would tend to be temporary and not a settled residence.

With elderly homeless persons, the result might be different; such people might need prolonged hostel accommodation with the support of the hostel staff. Brent council had not merely asked itself whether the applicant acted reasonably in refusing the accommodation offered by Tower Hamlets but also whether her staging-post accommodation was 'a settled residence'.

Its conclusion that it was settled accommodation could not be faulted. There was no basis for the court to interfere with the council's decision. The appeal would be allowed.

LORD JUSTICE LEGGATT and LORD JUSTICE HENRY concurred.