News

19.05.2021 - House prices climb at highest rate since before credit crunch

Average UK house prices soared by 10.2% in the year to March, the highest annual growth rate for 14 years, according to official figures.

The Office for National Statistics said average prices rose by £24,000 to £256,000 - a new record high.

Prices have been pushed up by the temporary stamp duty reduction, low interest rates, as well as people wanting more space after lockdown.

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sarah Coles warned the market risked overheating.

"We're back to the kind of double-figure house price rises we saw in the heady days before the financial crisis [of 2008]," the analyst said....

19.05.2021 - Appeal judges grapple with gaps in lawful residence

In the messy case of Akter v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 704 the Court of Appeal considered that a second decision letter which generated a right of appeal might have continued the appellant’s lawful residence when she pursued that opportunity to appeal, despite the original decision letter not giving her a right of appeal. This was even though Ms Akter had not made a second application to trigger the second decision letter. This judgment was only a decision on permission to bring judicial review proceedings, so nothing was conclusively determined at this stage.

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18.05.2021 - Coronavirus and the UK immigration system as of 18 May 2021

Right to work checks

Checks on the immigration status of employees to see if they have the legal right to work in the UK can be carried out remotely under a concession in place since 30 March 2020 and due to end on 20 June 2021.

The process for conducting a right to work check during the pandemic is as follows:

  • ask the worker to submit a scanned copy or a photo of their original documents via email or using a mobile app
  • arrange a video call with the worker – ask them to hold up the original documents to the camera and check them against the digital copy of the documents
  • record the...

14.05.2021 - “Hand on the tiller” prosecution for assisting unlawful immigration fails

Fouad Kakaei is an Iranian man who helped steer small boats carrying asylum seekers across the English Channel on two separate occasions, in July and December 2019. He also attempted to cross on several other occasions. Following the July 2019 crossing, he did not claim asylum here in the UK and was returned to Denmark, where a previous claim for asylum had already been refused. He did claim asylum in the UK after the December crossing but was charged with illegal entry under section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment. He also faced tr...

13.05.2021 - Court of Appeal considers unduly harsh deportation test

The Court of Appeal has considered, again, whether it is “unduly harsh” for British children to be separated from their father on the basis that he is a foreign criminal.

The case is TD (Albania) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 619. It concerns an Albanian national who was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2011 and lives here with his British partner and their three children. Due to his persistent criminal offending, the Home Office decided to deport him. The question for the Court of Appeal was whether it would be unduly harsh for them to do so.

Public interes...

13.05.2021 - Renter eviction ban to finish at end of May

A ban on rental property evictions enforced by bailiffs in England will end on 31 May, the government has confirmed.

The ban was brought in during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bailiffs were asked not to carry out an eviction if anyone living in the property had Covid-19 symptoms or was self-isolating.

The Ministry of Housing said renters will continue to be supported as national coronavirus restrictions ease.

Eviction notice periods - which were previously extended to six months as an emergency measure during the pandemic - will be set at four months from 1 June.

If lockdown restrictions ease as ...

12.05.2021 - Home Office U-turn on coronavirus right to work checks

As far as odd decisions go, it was up there with the best. The Home Office announced on 20 April that its concession to enable employers to conduct right to work checks virtually — for the safety of their workforce during the pandemic — was to be scrapped from 17 May. 

Let’s make HR staff and employees go into the office for no other reason at all than to conduct right to work checks. 

Let’s do this despite the fact that the government’s own guidance says that “from 17 May: you should continue to work from home if you can”.

And let’s also do it despite the fact that the right to work of many n...

12.05.2021 - £100 million investment visa loan scheme ruled legal after all

A £100 million scheme for loaning migrants the money for an Investor visa was legal after all, the Court of Appeal has ruled. The case is R (Wang & Anor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 679. It overturned a previous Upper Tribunal decision that the scheme did not meet the Investor rules because the money invested was not under the borrower’s control.

The court reached this conclusion reluctantly and criticised the shoddy drafting of the Immigration Rules in allowing the scheme to operate despite what the Home Office intended.

Loans invested in a sister company

Appl...

10.05.2021 - Fear of missing out fuels record house prices in April

Average house prices have climbed about £20,000 in the last year, the Halifax says, as the buying frenzy prompted by the stamp duty holiday continues.

Prices are up 8.2% in the last 12 months, the highest annual growth rate for five years, it said.

Altura mortgage broker Rob Gill said "fear of missing out" (FOMO) was driving the surge.

"There's a fear among buyers that they could miss out if they don't hurry up and buy before prices spiral," he said.

The Halifax said that prices rose sharply in April, up by 1.4% compared with March. The average price of a UK home hit £258,204, a record high.

A...

10.05.2021 - Congolese man unlawfully detained for three and a half years

To a person in detention, particularly in prison, every day of freedom lost matters and the Defendant needs to be able to justify it. In this case I think that principle became lost to sight.

So says the High Court in the case of Louis v Home Office [2021] EWHC 288 (QB), a depressing false imprisonment claim in which the Home Office was taken to task for its appalling treatment of a vulnerable detainee who was held under immigration powers for over four years.

The court found a multitude of failures going “very well beyond maladministration” that resulted in Mr Louis, a care leaver who arrived...

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