While legal aid is still theoretically available for possession proceedings, homelessness and serious cases of disrepair, the number of people getting advice on housing law is continuing to fall. In around a third of county areas (and a few metropolitan ones also) there is just one housing legal aid provider; this can result in a conflict of interest as housing law practitioners cannot be expected to represent both tenants and their landlords. The restrictive scope of housing legal aid also means that households with landlord, rental, housing benefit or mortgage arrears problems are effectively prohibited from accessing advice and representation before their problems spiral into a crisis. So not only does the inadequate supply of free legal advice on housing fail to prevent housing law problems, but the paucity of providers cannot manage the demand and priority systems can leave people waiting to get legal help even when they are facing an imminent crisis in keeping a roof over their heads.

At a time when homelessness, especially street homelessness, has been rising, and the affordable housing crisis is becoming one of the biggest problems facing the country, this shortage of free housing advice is nothing less than disgraceful. And the housing crisis is no longer just a ‘London problem’ of ‘generation rent’. Research by the Resolution Foundation has tracked how the growing gap between earnings and house prices has led to secure ownership falling right across the country, forcing people to rent privately.2www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/press-releases/home-ownership-struggle-hits-coronation-street/ The proportion of people who securely own their own home has fallen across every part of the UK since peaking in early 2003, and in some key urban areas it has fallen to little over 55 per cent from a high point of around 70 per cent.

As we approach the time for the government’s post-implementation review of LASPO, adequate access to housing advice, especially on tenancy issues, must be addressed as a priority. ■