Page 144 - Solving Housing Disputes

for example, most advice on homelessness and advice on notices seeking
possession prior to issue of court proceedings. Moreover, the fees that firms
earn from advising on the County Court duty desk at initial hearings of
possession cases do not cover costs. HLPA members carry out this work to
ensure that vulnerable tenants are represented and remain in their homes.
These cases do not represent a viable financial proposition alone. HLPA
members survive precariously due to fees made through costs being awarded
at inter partes rates in judicial review and in possession cases, which can be
more than three times higher than legal aid rates 337 . The HDS would end this
cross subsidy and so – without a huge increase in rates, sufficient to
compensate for both this difference in rates and the decline in volume of work
– would lead to the closure of what remains of legal aid provision.

The process of the Working Party
41. A major concern which we expressed from the outset was the composition of
the Working Party. The only members with recent experience of acting for
tenants and people in housing need were Tessa Buchanan and Daniel Clarke,
on behalf of the Housing Law Practitioners’ Association, and John Gallagher,
on behalf of Shelter. Such fundamental changes to the justice system as are
contemplated by the proposed HDS needed to be considered both at greater
length and by a Working Party that was more representative of tenants and
homeless persons. We accept that JUSTICE took evidence from other
practitioners, but the direction of the central idea was clearly determined in
advance and the views of those consulted externally appeared to make little
or no impact unless they were favourable to the proposals. This is reflected
in the fact that the report does not indicate which of the persons consulted
opposed the HDS and which supported it. We consider that the report should
have made clear that this radical suggestion is made without the support of
any (so far as we are aware) tenants’ representatives or organisations.

42. The lack of adequate representation was compounded by the fact that the
Working Party process did not allow anything like sufficient time for detailed
consideration of something as revolutionary as the HDS. There were some six
two-hour meetings of the full Working Party, and five two-hour meetings of
each of the three sub-groups. The earlier meetings were largely devoted to

337 Compare the hourly rates in the hourly rates set out in Schedule 1 to the Civil Legal Aid
(Remuneration) Regulations 2013 (ranging from £46.53 for some Legal Help work to £71.55 for
certificated work in the higher courts) with the Government’s Solicitors’ Guideline Hourly Rates of up
to £317 for a Grade A fee earner in central London.
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