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Simply restoring Legal Aid for all housing issues is probably not enough. Currently I turn away large numbers of tenants with disrepair problems who do not qualify for Legal Aid and where a CFA would not be appropriate. But there are more substantial issues. Housing and Landlord Tenant Law is extremely complex. So much so that only about 300 firms countrywide have Legal Aid Contracts in Housing. One of the reasons for this is the work (even when covered by Legal Aid), is terribly badly paid. Until the hourly rates increase there will be a very real shortage of solicitors wishing to be involved in this work. As such clients will find it difficult to find a firm of solicitors who they can instruct. Famously I was instructed by a chap in Swansea as he could find no one locally to instruct. I practice in Notting Hill in London. Only yesterday I was instructed by somebody in the Cotswolds as they have nobody local with experience in a particular type of Housing matter. This is clearly wrong and I would hope that a new Labour Gov`t would look at all the issues and try to allow Access to Justice perhaps for the many not the few?

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