Facts: Alternative Futures provided accommodation, board and care in a number of homes registered under the Registered Homes Act 1984. It then created a second company to deal with its property, which granted tenancies to the residents, with the original company continuing to provide care. The local authority refused to cancel the registration of the homes or pay housing benefit, on the basis that the homes remained registered and registrable.

Judgment: the Care Standards Tribunal held that a home could not unilaterally cease to be registered; it only ceased to be registered when the registration authority made a considered decision to remove it. If the home disagreed, with that or the housing benefits decision, it should invoke the appeals machinery that applied in both those types of case.

Comment: see the decision of the Court of Appeal under Moore v Care Standards Tribunal at para 29.32 below.