Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

My Lords, I come to this debate informed not only, as ever, by the noble Lord, Lord Best, whose expertise in matters of housing is second to none in your Lordships' House, but by my experience over many years representing an inner-city ward in Newcastle that has a mix of housing. It has owner-occupiers, a substantial number of council houses, houses owned by registered social landlords and a significant number of private rented properties, many of which are, I have to say, poorly managed and which present many problems to the tenants. It is certainly true that, as the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, has said, some landlords are exploitative. Others are simply incapable for one reason or another of managing their properties adequately. They do not have the resources or the skill, or they may not live locally. Whatever the reason, it is the tenants who suffer. In these circumstances, there has to be some redress. I will be speaking to Amendment 81, which seeks to cut to the chase in terms of the overall issue. The amendment so ably moved by the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, deals with a series of issues, but Amendment 81 simply seeks to restore legal aid across the piece in housing matters, which strikes my noble friends and me as probably the most efficacious way of dealing with the problem. That is not in any way to minimise the strength of the arguments put by the noble Lord, Lord Shipley. He and I have been opening and closing debates across the council chamber for about 35 years, and it is a pleasure to continue that long-standing tradition. Housing is now becoming one of the critical areas of public policy. For those engaged in not only the policy but the daily life that is influenced by housing, it is obvious that matters are getting increasingly difficult. We have spiralling rents and a shortage of available accommodation exacerbated, as other noble Lords have said, by pending changes to housing benefits that are likely to lead to still greater pressure on the private rented sector. At the same time, councils are having increasing difficulty in maintaining their stock as capital programmes are reduced and repairs and investment in existing council properties become more difficult to achieve. It must be said that not all councils are wonderful managers of property. Council tenants also have their problems and need redress as, occasionally, do the tenants of registered social landlords. What will occur as a result of the changes that the Bill proposes is that 40 per cent of housing cases—52,000 cases—will lose legal help, often from organisations such as Shelter rather than from solicitors but sometimes from solicitors, and that will save the Exchequer some £10 million. There will be 1,200 cases where legal representation will no longer be available. That will save the Exchequer £3 million. These are not inordinately large sums one might think, and other noble Lords have pointed out that the potential on-cost to other services could be considerably greater. Under the provisions of the Bill, there will be exceptional case funding, up to 25 per cent for some proceedings. I do not know whether the Minister is able to indicate the likely take-up. Up to 25 per cent can, of course, mean from virtually nothing up to 25 per cent, and it is not entirely clear what proceedings are envisaged in the term ““some proceedings””. A little enlightenment on that would be helpful. As we have heard, legal aid will still be available for eviction cases, but in effect at the last gasp and not at a stage when matters might be resolved earlier, potentially to the benefit of both sides. That must be a more cost-effective way of dealing with it. However, we are not just dealing with money; we are dealing with people’s lives, with families and individuals living in stressful conditions once the threat—explicit or otherwise, legal or otherwise—is made, and that must also have a bearing on how society reacts in terms of the assistance it is prepared to offer. Of course, much of the problem arises in the private sector, although it should be clear that it is a minority of landlords who are deliberately exploiting and neglecting their tenants. However, it is disconcerting that 100 per cent of environmental health officers encounter persistent failures on the part of landlords to carry out their obligations. Every environmental health officer has cases of that kind to deal with. Sixty per cent of them say that more than half the cases they are involved with affect vulnerable people, so we are dealing with a significant and very widespread problem affecting many vulnerable people. A very strong case has been made by previous speakers around the issue of damages. It seems absurd that damages claims for distress, hardship or loss or damage to possessions will not be covered by legal aid that might be available to deal with evictions. It is clearly necessary to restore legal aid and assistance for a damages claim alongside repair orders, for example. After all, at the moment it is possible for a court to award aggravated or even exemplary damages in particularly bad cases, which is a clear indication of the extent of the problem. Of course, if legal aid is not available, the situation is simply going to get worse. I have no doubt the Minister will fall back yet again—and I am not blaming him, that is the job that he has to do on behalf of the Government—on saying that there are alternatives to legal aid, but that is not a realistic view. Local authorities certainly have housing departments; they often have housing advice services, but these are also under pressure. The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, would no doubt confirm that in the last year of the previous administration in Newcastle there was a reduction in the number of people employed precisely in this area of dealing with private landlords; he is nodding his agreement. Shelter, the body most concerned with and most effective in helping tenants, is sustaining a 70 per cent cut in its anticipated capacity to offer advice. I was rather surprised to learn that this is not just a problem of the cities, as one might think—of the Newcastles and Manchesters and Birminghams. If Shelter’s figures are to be believed—and there is no reason to dispute them—the reduction in the number of cases and the income of Shelter branches will actually be greater in Dorset and Somerset than in Manchester and Newcastle. So we are not talking about a specifically urban problem—not that it should make any difference where these things occur—we are talking about a very widespread problem reaching right across the country. It is clearly necessary to provide access to as much help as possible. It may very well be required to be legal help from the legal profession. But in many cases it would be through precisely the kind of organisation that normally Ministers would be able to pray in aid as being available. They simply will not be available on the scale required. Amendment 81 seeks to restore legal aid for housing. As I have already indicated, the direct cost would not be inordinate but the indirect savings to the public purse would be greater if it is available. As we have seen earlier today, Amendment 90ZZB has been spatchcocked into this group. It is based on a Law Society proposal to ensure that legal aid is available for advocacy, once again, in the Court of Protection for people in relation to the right of respect for a person’s home or their private life, which comes under the European convention. The Law Society’s view is that if the Bill is not amended someone who suffers from learning disabilities or dementia, and is facing a forced removal from their home by a relative or a public authority, would have no legal aid to be represented before the Court of Protection. Although there may be other issues around deprivation of family life, some cases would not be within the scope of legal aid if the Bill is implemented as drafted. That is particularly the case where a vulnerable person does not have any family but is still removed from his or her home. Unless funding is made available, the official solicitor would not be available to assist. I do not quite know why the amendment has been put in this group—it seems to relate to other business affecting the Court of Protection—except that there is a clear housing connection. That is also a matter of concern. The noble Lord, Lord Shipley, raised the issue of trespassers. By sheer coincidence, I received an e-mail today on behalf of a constituent who suffers from very poor health and disability, and has been caring for a relative who has died. He is now concerned about his position vis-à-vis his occupancy of the house. Technically, he is a trespasser—or he will be as soon as the arm’s-length management company which manages the house tells him that he has to go. He would not be able to receive legal advice under the terms of this Bill. That puts into very clear light the difficulties which the Bill would create. Bad housing and the trauma of eviction and homelessness lead to damage to individuals and families, and clearly have social and, ultimately, financial costs which have to be borne by the public purse. For legal aid in these cases to be restricted by a mantra that it is to be available only in respect of cases affecting life and liberty is to create a two-tier system of justice, which is particularly objectionable in such an important area as housing on an individual’s life and the lives of communities. Having heard the very strong arguments from all around this house, not least from at least part of the coalition Benches, I hope that the Government will rethink their position. If they proceed with the Bill in its present form, this would be one of the gravest errors that they would make. I urge them to listen to their colleagues in this place and those in the Commons who, in fairness, made similar points. It is not too late to see sense and to retain rights which can make a significant difference to people’s lives.