Glasgow Council wins appeal allowing it to house homeless people in unsuitable temporary accommodation

Councils can provide temporary unsuitable accommodation for homeless people if they have adequately taken the needs of those requiring housing into account, a court has ruled.

The ruling, delivered by Lord Tyre in the Inner House of the Court of Session, overturned a previous decision that judged councils had an absolute duty to provide appropriate housing, even if only temporarily.

The initial judgement from the court ruled against Glasgow City Council, which had argued its finite resources and the lack of housing stock meant meeting the needs of the homeless family in question was impossible. This case arose after an unnamed woman’s family were provided a three-bed flat after being granted refugee status.

However, an internal investigation into the suitability of the flat found the family required a four-bed flat with a living room to accommodate one of the woman’s children’s support needs connected to their autism.

Glasgow City Council has won a court appeal around a case linked to temporary accommodation of homeless people.

In Scotland, councils cannot provide homeless families with unsuitable accommodation under the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2014, which states a property is unsuitable if it does not meet the needs of the household.

Glasgow City Council argued it was only required to take the needs of the family into account rather than to have an absolute duty to meet those needs, and blamed its inability to provide suitable accommodation on the fact it owns none of its housing stock.

Following an appeal, the court ruled “so long as account is taken of the general needs of the household” and the decision of the local authority is “reasonable”, councils are not required to find suitable temporary accommodation, even if the available accommodation has been deemed unsuitable for the needs of those living there.

The ruling will mean the council is no longer required to source a five-room flat, a court order the local authority had claimed would be impossible to comply with due to the lack of housing availability in Glasgow.

The council had also argued it would have been required to demolish existing houses under compulsory purchase and rebuild them as five-room properties to comply.

A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: “We welcome the court’s decision in confirming our approach to the provision of temporary accommodation to the family. We will now consider the judgement on how to move forward.”

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