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Council brings homelessness service described as ‘discriminatory gatekeeping’ in-house after legal challenge
Manchester City Council has brought its homelessness assessment service back in-house after a legal challenge by a law firm.
The case was brought by the housing team at the Greater Manchester Law Centre (GMLC) on behalf of what the firm described as “an extremely vulnerable young homeless person”.
This person wanted to challenge the council’s unpublished policy or practice of preventing under-25s from making a homelessness application to the council and diverting them to a charity instead.
The young person argued that the policy was “discriminatory gatekeeping, which was either intended to avoid, or had the effect of avoiding, the council’s statutory duties, such as the duty to provide immediate interim accommodation”.
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A spokesperson for the GMLC explained: “While we support young homeless people receiving additional targeted services and support, it causes real barriers and problems when local authorities attempt to outsource their duties to bodies who are under fewer legal obligations than them.
“It can also result in a ‘ping-pong’ between local authorities and charities, where homeless people are not getting the service they should be solely due to their age.
“There was no admission by the local authority or determination by the court as to the substance of the challenge, but as made clear in the order, following issue, Manchester City Council agreed to redraw its policies for how to deal with under-25s.”
The policy was in place from July 2018. As a result of the council’s decision to bring the assessment service in-house, a high court in Manchester discontinued the legal claim a little over a month ago.
In response, a Manchester City Council spokesperson said: “We commissioned a third-party charity to provide a homelessness assessment service for young people aged 18-25. When we received a legal challenge regarding this assessment service, we offered to review it. The outcome of the review was to bring the service back in-house.”
In March, Manchester City Council signed a £9m retrofit deal to improve the energy efficiency in 500 homes across the city.
The agreement will see upgrades carried out by retrofit company Next Energy and will form part of the government’s Home Upgrade Grant Phase 2 (HUG2).
The scheme is designed to improve homes that are off the gas grid and rented or owned by low-income families.
Next Energy said it hoped the contract with the council will help to tackle the fuel-poverty crisis for households in off-gas areas.
The government announced the local authorities that had been successful for the HUG2 scheme in March 2023.
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