Honorary senior lecturer at Brunel University of London
May was a highly significant month for housing law. The Renters’ Rights Act came into force – and Legal Action Group published the sixth edition of Diane Astin’s Housing Law Handbook, a key resource for practitioners.
The first edition came out in 2008, but the latest was particularly satisfying for its author. The Renters’ Rights Act was ‘the most significant change in the rights of private tenants for more than 37 years’.
As well as abolishing no-fault evictions, Diane notes that the legislation strengthens tenants’ rights to remain in their homes. ‘It should also mean that private tenants will be able to enforce other rights, such as the right to have repairs carried out and the right not to be harassed. For tenants at risk of eviction for no reason, these rights have been so hard to enforce until now.’
The sixth edition of her work encompasses the act, developments in homelessness, Awaab’s Law and the enforcement of housing standards.
Diane didn’t set out to be a housing lawyer. She did a degree in theology and considered becoming a Methodist minister. ‘I had an idea of what I would probably like to be, but I didn’t want to make a decision until I had lived a bit.’
After graduating, she worked as a care worker in a social services hostel. She explains that people were being discharged from large psychiatric institutions that were closing down. Diane describes those years as a ‘real eye-opener’, adding: ‘Having a safe and secure home is the most important thing for anyone, but particularly someone who has been institutionalised and who needs support to live independently.’
She decided to become a housing adviser, undertaking her training contract at law firm David Gray in Newcastle after completing a law conversion course. She then moved to London, spending a decade working at North Islington Law Centre.
In 2018, Diane joined Brunel University of London as a lecturer in legal practice. She is now an honorary senior lecturer. Until recently, she taught public law and civil litigation: ‘Teaching public law in recent years was really exciting. Instead of citing decades-old cases of constitutional significance, it was all happening in real time, with the Miller cases about parliamentary sovereignty and the Rwanda litigation.’
'Having a safe and secure home is important for anyone, but particularly someone who has been institutionalised'
Before Brunel, Diane was a visiting lecturer at the universities of North London and Westminster, which she combined with her practice as a solicitor. She taught students about the advice sector and social welfare law.
Diane wishes more universities offered options in social welfare topics such as housing, immigration, education, welfare rights and employment law – ‘the areas of law most relevant for the most disadvantaged people’.
She wants students to understand that doing ‘human rights law’ doesn’t require them to work at the UN or an international NGO. ‘What we used to call being a “legal aid lawyer” involves upholding human rights. Most of the significant domestic cases involving human rights are about things like welfare benefits, prisons, housing, immigration, community care services, and are brought by “legal aid lawyers”.’
Asked about her career highlights, two cases stick in Diane’s mind. She was able to help two clients secure decent housing.
In one, the client was severely disabled. He was in his 30s but living in a residential care home for older people with dementia. ‘Two local authorities and a housing association were arguing about who was responsible. There wasn’t much law involved, just persistence – mostly on his part, to be fair – and forcing them to communicate with each other, plus threatening legal action when things ground to a halt.’
The other case concerned a client who’d had a tough childhood and spent most of his adult life in prison. ‘He really wanted to turn his life around, but was homeless and likely to reoffend. We were able to use what was then a new category of priority need – being vulnerable because of having been institutionalised by prison. We succeeded in a county court appeal, and he got a lovely flat in Sloane Square of all places.’
Having a safe home where you’re secure is a ‘fundamental’, says Diane. Those two clients have sadly since died but she takes comfort from the fact that they did not die young in a care home or on the streets. ‘They had good housing and real dignity. That’s why I love housing law.’
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