Annex A
The following is the text of a press release
issued by the Law Society and Shelter on 23 December 2003
"Housing crisis at Christmas as legal aid
system fails poorest in society.
Hundreds of people are being let down by the
legal aid system as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads
or resolve housing disputes say the Law Society and Shelter.
Solicitors and advice agencies are being inundated
with requests for help from people faced with eviction orders,
neglectful landlords or housing benefit errors by local authorities.
There are now significant areas of England and
Wales where people are unable to find legal aid advisers to take
their cases up. The problem is particularly acute in the North
East, Manchester, Kent and South London.
Many law firms and advice agencies cannot take
on new cases because of Government cutbacks. Spending on legal
aid for family, housing, and employment issues has been slashed
by fourteen percent in the last three years. In some areas as
much as fifteen percent of legal aid expenditure on housing is
spent sorting out incorrect housing benefit payments.
Commenting on the deteriorating situation, Janet
Paraskeva, Law Society Chief Executive, said: "Failure to
get good quality housing advice can lead to family, debt and employment
problems. The legal aid system is being strangled by red tape
and under-investment. The poorest people in society are unable
to fight injustice and improve their lives because far too often
they cannot find a legal aid adviser to represent them."
Adam Sampson, Director of Shelter, said: "It
is clearly unacceptable for anyone in a modern society to be denied
legal representation—justice must not become a reserve for
those who can afford it. The Government must act fast and must
act now to make sure resources are available to make justice truly
accessible to all and especially to those who are at risk of homelessness."
Notes to editors
Government spending on civil legal aid —family,
housing, employment, welfare law—has been cut from 564 million
pounds in 1999-2000 to 483 million in 2002-03.
Details of people who can describe the problems
they have had trying to get legal advice are available from the
Law Society Press Office. Solicitors in south London can talk
about how they are struggling to cope with demand for housing
advice and unable to help people facing homelessness. Solicitors
at the only law firm in a large area of the North East providing
housing advice will talk about why they are set to withdraw from
this work. Solicitors in Preston can describe how no law firms
were able to provide housing advice for several weeks and the
problems this caused. There are also many other regional examples."
The following is a detailed analysis of the
provision of housing advice in the four areas featured in The
Law Society and Shelter's December press release.
SOUTH LONDON
There are 72 specialist housing advice providers
funded by the Legal Services Commission in South London. Providers
who hold Legal Services Commission contracts in other categories
of law can also give housing advice under the terms of their contracts.
We allocate the provision of advice across all
the London boroughs in accordance with the identified need. The
vast majority of provision is targeted in the inner South London
boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Wandsworth.
Most contracts are running well, ie the number
of cases being taken on is in line with allocated provision. While
there is currently no provision in Merton, clients living there
can seek advice in neighbouring boroughs, as there are good transport
links. From April 2004 we intend to fund a specialist housing
advice provider in Merton.
Some providers in South London had reported
that they were beginning to run out of allocated cases. However,
when we offered an increase in the number of allocated cases in
November 2003, we received few applications.
We take the provision of housing advice extremely
seriously. Although we consider the current provision in South
London to be adequate, we are working to improve it further and
it is one of our priority areas for an increase in contracts from
April 2004.
In addition, we are working with others to understand
some of the triggers which cause a need for housing advice and
to devise effective solutions to improve access. For example:
— We have set up a working group to
examine ways in which housing benefits administration can be improved
in order to prevent possession cases. This working group is chaired
by the Commission's Regional Director and includes representatives
from the Department for Constitutional Affairs, the Department
for Work and Pensions and the Association of London Government.
— We have supported Neighbourhood Renewal-funded
projects in South London that look at improving the take-up of
housing and other welfare benefits in order to maximise the income
of vulnerable tenants and others, with the aim of reducing problems
caused by rent arrears.
— We are working in partnership with
Shelter and the Greater London Authority to develop a Housing
Advice Strategy for London.
KENT
Housing advice in Kent is mainly provided by
not-for-profit advice agencies. The Legal Services Commission
has housing contracts worth over £250,000 with five advice
agencies. These advice agencies are: Shelter Ashford (which provides
outreach services in the Folkestone area), Shelter Medway, Shelter
Housing Advice Hastings, Canterbury Housing Advice and Tunbridge
Wells Citizens Advice Bureau. This amounts to over 5,000 hours
of advice provision in Kent alone.
All these advice agencies are located in large
conurbations, which have good public transport links to other
towns. Only a small number of housing cases in Kent need to be
referred to a solicitors' firm. Therefore, until recently we have
considered it unnecessary to contract with a solicitors firm for
housing advice. Solicitors' firms with contracts in other categories
of law are doing housing work under contract tolerances to support
the advice agencies. In response to the recent need for specialist
housing advice, we expect to have a housing contract with a solicitors'
firm from April 2004.
MANCHESTER
The Legal Services Commission's three largest
contracts with Shelter are in the North Western region. The Co-ordinator
of Shelter Greater Manchester is a member of our independent North
Western Regional Legal Services Committee, which advises the Legal
Services Commission on unmet legal need locally. The Committee
has not indicated any concerns over a shortage of housing contractors
in Preston or Manchester.
We have allocated almost 4,000 annual housing
cases for the North West. Only 2,834 cases have been started since
April 2003, and we currently have an unused allocation of 1,000
housing cases, though we expect these to be used by the end of
the financial year.
We plan to increase the allocation of housing
cases in the North West to as much as 4,300 from April 2004. This
will allow existing contractors to continue their work as well
as allowing for new contracts as part of the current bidding round.
NORTH EAST
The Legal Services Commission has a contract
with Capita Assistance to provide housing advice over the telephone
in the North East.
South Tyneside is in close proximity to Newcastle,
Sunderland and Gateshead, which have very good public transport
links. The borough has allocated nearly 1,500 housing cases in
2003/4. We expect only around 1,300 of this allocation to be used
by April 2004. We also expect nearly 1,000 housing cases to be
started under contract tolerances.
When the solicitors' firm in South Tyneside
that has indicated it will withdraw from the CLS has done so,
we plan to offer an outreach service from a neighbouring borough.
There is currently no specialist face-to-face
housing adviser in Northumberland. This situation will soon be
rectified as we are awarding housing contracts to a local solicitors'
firm and a not-for-profit advice agency.
Legal Services Commission
January 2004
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