A London law centre that was forced to temporarily close its doors earlier this year due to a lack of funding has permanently closed, the Law Centres Network confirmed today.
For over 40 years Hillingdon Law Centre provided free legal advice and representation to people on housing, immigration, employment, and welfare rights. In May, the centre announced it was temporarily suspending services while it urgently addressed a funding shortfall.
Today, the Law Centres Network said the charity’s trustees had overseen an orderly wind-down to ensure the law centre’s affairs were managed responsibly and current clients were supported through the process. Client cases have either been closed or transferred to other practices. All clients were contacted about their case.
Law Centres Network director Julie Bishop said: ‘Hillingdon Law Centre gave more than 40 years of service to some of the most vulnerable people in west London. The people who worked there did so because they believed that access to justice should not depend on your ability to pay - and for thousands of people, that belief made a profound practical difference to their lives.
‘This closure did not happen because of any failure of the organisation or the people in it. It happened because civil legal aid has been cut so deeply, and the funding environment for advice charities has become so hostile, that even organisations with long and distinguished records of service can no longer sustain themselves.
‘Hillingdon is not an isolated case. It is part of a pattern. Law centres and advice organisations across the country are under the same pressures, and without serious, sustained investment in civil legal aid, we will see more closures. The government needs to act.’
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