The Housing Act 1996 places no limit on the number of times an applicant may make a Part VII homelessness application. In R (Hoyte) v Southwark LBC [2016] EWHC 1665 (Admin) the Court applied the House of Lords decision in R v Harrow LBC, ex p Fahia: an applicant cannot make a further application based on “exactly the same facts” as an earlier application. If an application is “not identical” to an earlier one, there is no short cut of “non-statutory” inquiries. The statutory process must be followed.
However, the decision as to whether there are any new facts is one for the local housing authority. It is challengeable only on judicial review grounds.