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Home Office given leave to appeal against High Court’s Right to Rent judgement

The government is to attempt to overturn the decision in the Court of Appeal a week after Right to Rent was criticised by a judge because it had lead to discrimination.

Nigel Lewis

The Home Office has been granted permission to appeal against last week’s Hight Court ruling on Right to Rent.

After months of evidence from many organisations including the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Mr Justice Martin Spencer ruled that the scheme breaks the European Convention on Human Rights because it leads to discrimination against non-UK nationals living in the UK and British ethnic minorities.

But in a statement made yesterday by Caroline Nokes, the Minister of State for Immigration, the Home Office rejected the judge’s findings, said it was disappointed by the ruling and that it would now fight it out in the Court of Appeal.

“In the meantime, the provisions passed by this House in 2014 remain in force,” the statement by Nokes (pictured, above) said.

“There are no immediate changes to the operation of the policy. Landlords and letting agents are still obliged to conduct Right to Rent checks as required in legislation.

“The law was and remains absolutely clear that discriminatory treatment on the part of anyone carrying out these checks is unlawful. And the Right to Rent legislation provides for a Code of Practice which sets out what landlords are expected to do.”

Windrush

But the Minister also referred to one of the main reasons why the Judicial Review of Right to Rent was so scathing; the treatment of those who arrived from the Caribbean during the 1950s onwards, known as the Windrush generation.

A review of this is under way lead by independent advisor Wendy Williams. Nokes said that: “The review is identifying the key legislative, policy and operational failures which resulted in members of the Windrush generation becoming entangled in measures designed for illegal immigrants”.

March 6, 2019

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