Housing authority's decision that homelessness intentional - application for review after expiry of 21-day time limit - authority's discretion to permit or refuse review out of time wide and unfettered

R(C) v Lewisham London Borough Council: CA (Lords Justice Ward, Waller and Dyson): 4 July 2003

The applicant, a homeless person, had been notified by her local housing authority that it considered her homelessness to be intentional.

After the expiry of the 21-day time limit imposed by section 202(3) of the Housing Act 1996, the applicant requested a review of that decision by a more senior officer.

The request was refused.

Her application for judicial review of that decision was dismissed by Mr Justice Maurice Kay.

The applicant appealed.

Jan Luba QC and Jamie Burton (instructed by Straker Holford & Co) for the applicant; Ranjit Bhose (instructed by the Solicitor to Lewisham London Borough Council) for the local authority.

Held, dismissing the appeal, that section 202(3) of the 1996 entitled the applicant as of right to request a review within 21 days of the decision and thereafter 'such longer period as the authority may in writing allow'; that that discretion was wide and unfettered, but required the local authority to reach a responsible decision in furtherance of, and not in excess of, its statutory power and having regard to the statutory purpose and policy; that the scheme of the Act was to lay down procedures and time limits to enable orderly management by local authorities of their precious supply of housing; and that given the wide ambit of its discretion, its decision to refuse the applicant's request for a review could not be impugned.