Local connection and the need to live locally (Hussaini v Islington LBC)

Table of contents

• What are the practical implications of this case?
• What was the background?
• What did the court decide?
• Case details

Article summary

Local Government analysis: A Court of Appeal judgment which provides helpful guidance on the test to be deployed in cases where a homeless applicant asserts a local connection with a borough in which they do not reside. The court clarifies that it is wrong for an authority to impose a threshold requirement of ‘needing to live’ within the borough, and that a local connection can still arise in situations where there is no absolute need to reside within that district. However, here the first appeal decision was upheld, as the authority had not in fact imposed this test; the review decision had legitimately considered ‘need’ generally without relying on an ‘absolute need’ threshold. Written by Kevin Long, housing solicitor at Hackney Community Law Centre.