High Court confirms duties to assess housing needs apply to pre-2018 homeless applications

Beatrice Patrick, a solicitor in our housing and public law team, acted in a recent successful judicial review challenge in which the High Court confirmed that a local authority’s duty to produce an assessment of a homeless applicant’s housing needs and a personal housing plan, and to keep them under review, apply to homeless applications made before April 2018.

The relevant legislation – Section 189A Housing Act 1996 – was inserted to the Housing Act 1996 as part of the changes made by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, which came into force on 3 April 2018. In relation to some of the changes, the regulations specify that they will not be backdated – i.e. they will not apply to applications made before 3 April 2018. Similar transitional provisions are not included in relation to Section 189A.

Pictured: Beatrice Patrick

In her claim for judicial review, TW (who made a homeless application in 2015) argued that s189A should apply to homelessness applications made before 3 April 2018. The opponent local authority did not oppose her claim and on 1 April 2025 Judge O’Connor, sitting as a Judge of the High Court, made an order in agreed terms. The order included a mandatory order requiring the Defendant to produce a housing needs assessment under section 189A and a declaration in the following terms:

IT IS DECLARED THAT:

The duties in section 189A HA 1996 apply in relation to the Claimant’s case, notwithstanding that her application for assistance under section 183 HA 1996 was made before 3 April 2018.

While the number of pre-2018 applications that remain ongoing is likely to be limited, TW’s circumstances are not unique, and the court’s decision provides helpful confirmation that a local authority’s assessment and planning duties apply to those pre-2018 applicants.

Beatrice Patrick of Hopkin Murray Beskine acted for TW, alongside Daniel Clarke of Doughty Street Chambers.