It was lovely to attend the first in-person Housing Law Practitioners’ Association (HLPA) conference for three years, which took place on 17 November 2022. The LAG bookstall was very popular, possibly because there was a 15 per cent discount, but more likely due to the actual physicality of the books on display. The conference was topped and tailed by HHJ Jan Luba KC and Liz Davies KC, with an array of housing law issues for ‘The Modern Housing Lawyer’, as the conference was named: social housing; eligibility and migrants’ rights; possession; mental health and capacity; homelessness; and disrepair, the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and fitness for habitation.

Simon Mullings, joint chair of HLPA, took us through the new Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS), due to replace Housing Possession Court Duty Schemes in 2023. The changes, he explained, will mean the provision of free welfare benefits and debt advice for those who face losing their homes – not otherwise in scope since the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 came into force. The trigger point will be a defendant receiving a letter before claim, which will enable the provision of legal advice on welfare benefits and debt. How this will actually work remains to be seen, as there just aren’t the same levels of welfare benefits and debt advisers anymore. There will be an ability to partner with other organisations to deliver the welfare benefits advice, but there are still likely to be issues around capacity.