Human Rights – R (Z) v Hackney LBC

June 17th, 2022 by James Goudie KC

In R (Z) v Hackney LBC (2020) UKSC 40, (2020) P.T.S.R. 1830, the Supreme Court held that a charitable housing association’s allocation policy, which effectively means that it allocated housing only to applicants from the Orthodox Jewish community, including some nominated by the local authority, was a legitimate and  proportionate means of meeting the housing needs of members of that community authority’s area, and was therefore not unlawfully discriminatory.

The final instalment of the saga has now taken place in the European Court of Human Rights, LF v UK, Judgment on 16 June 2022, which held that the arrangement between the association and the authority was objectively and reasonably justified, given, in particular, the difficulties that this community had in accessing accommodation.  The challenge was manifestly ill-founded.

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