Housing legal aid in the UK is in increasing demand. Why? Factors such as loss of employment and earnings as a result of the global pandemic is one obvious reason - the current energy crisis and economic environment is another. Pair this with a severe lack of available clinics, the increasing demand is resulting in anything from minor tenant-landlord disputes not being settled to even homelessness and rough sleeping.
While there are governmental talks in the pipeline surrounding the review of civil legal aid, is it too little too late for reform in the already shrinking sector aimed to help low-income households and individuals?
looking into the state of housing legal aid in England and Wales, specifically looking at housing legal aid deserts, to highlight the lack of access to legal support in rural areas.
For the purpose of the report, a housing legal aid desert was determined by the number of legal ‘incidents’ in a local authority (homelessness, social housing, evictions etc.), while legal aid supply was qualified by the number of legal aid providers in that area as a proxy.
The legal needs and supplies were then calculated per 10,000 people to make local authorities with different population densities comparable. It was also determined that local authorities within close proximity to each other shared legal needs and supplies.
Based on the findings from a particular geographical area, a final metric was then assigned to each local authority by dividing supply by need. The local authorities in the bottom 10% of their area were given the title of legal aid desert.
The research estimated approximately 12.45 million people are currently living in a housing legal aid desert throughout England and Wales.
This shows the housing legal aid problem is much bigger than it perhaps looks on the surface. The current system is failing many areas, with around 18% of the population simply not having the access they need to legal aid for housing-relating cases, regardless of their severity.
Figures also show that the housing legal aid deserts – those in the bottom 10% – had zero clinics per 1,000 incidents, while the five best-served local authorities only had 1.74 clinics per 1,000. This is a significant failure for individuals who need potentially life-changing housing legal aid.
East of England, South East, South West, East Midlands and West Midlands are the top five regions with the most housing legal aid deserts.
These low-value claims are then juxtaposed with the rise in rough sleeping, homelessness and evictions.
Jasmine Basran, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Crisis, an NGO with the core focus of ending homelessness, says:"Access to justice is a fundamental right that should be available to everyone in our society. Legal aid plays a significant role in this for people on low incomes where cost can be a barrier to justice. This is especially true for people who are homeless, experience the sharpest end of poverty and can face economic barriers and social stigma, which reduces the likelihood of being able to access justice."
A recent article from talks about the realities of homelessness and whether the government will in fact keep its promise to eradicate rough sleeping by 2024. The piece is contributed by four people who have first-hand experience of what being homeless is like
“We have all been failed by the systems that are supposed to help us. We have experienced criminalisation, stigma, discrimination, enforcement, and a lack of support. We’ve been told we are not a priority, we are “intentionally homeless” and had our appeals for support rejected. We’ve felt alienated from systems that lacked compassion and understanding.”
Providing sufficient access to housing legal aid can mean the difference between somewhere safe, secure and comfortable to sleep, and sleeping on the street.
If you want to find out more about the state of housing legal aid in the UK,
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