Morris v Westminster City Council

Ms Morris and her daughter became homeless and applied to the council for accommodation. She was a British citizen but her daughter (aged 3) was a citizen of Mauritius who was subject to immigration control. Normally, a mother and child would have a "priority need" for accommodation but the Housing Act 1996 section 185(4) says that a person "subject to immigration control" cannot count in deciding priority.

Ms Morris claimed that this rule affected her human right to respect for "family life". She said that there had been unlawful discrimination, on the grounds of nationality, because had her daughter been a British citizen she would have had a priority need.

The judge agreed. He decided that there had been discrimination within the "ambit" of the right to respect for family life and that discrimination was on grounds of national origin which is prohibited by article 14 of the Human Rights Act 1998. Powerful reasons would need to be advanced to justify such discrimination. The government could not show that the discrimination was reasonable and proportionate. He therefore granted a declaration that the section was incompatible with the Human Rights Act.

Source

Housing Today

Reference

A housing authority faced with an applicant in similar circumstances might wish to exercise its discretionary power to accommodate rather than deny housing on the basis of a provision which has been declared discriminatory.

Editor's note: the subject matter of Jan Luba's Case of the Week last week was "Human rights and Travellers" and not as printed. We apologise for that editorial error.