The buck stops here—local authority fails to avoid legal responsibilities to house 18-year old (R(AAM) v London Borough of Bromley)
Local Government analysis: This case concerned an application for judicial review for an asylum-seeking qualifying young person requesting accommodation from the local authority in circumstances where the local authority declined to accommodate him and instead directed him to asylum support accommodation. The claim was allowed. The court found that that the support powers of the Secretary of State for the Home Department under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 were residual and therefore the local authority was not entitled to look to the availability of such support when determining whether to support a young person under sections 24 and 24A of the Children Act 1989 (ChA 1989 ). Written by Silvia Nicolaou Garcia, associate at Bindmans LLP.