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Council Tax Reduction Schemes and judicial review
As well as the useful list of agreed Council schemes how about a list of those schemes that are subject to Judicial Review?
The London Boroughs of Camden, Hackney and Haringey seem to be the first in line. The object of JR would be clear…to strike down the local scheme in favour of the much more generous “default” scheme; this then becoming the Council’s local scheme.
hi peter -
we’ll definitely be reporting the outcome of any JR’s in our news section and we’ll be updating the toolkit section over the next few weeks as the deadline for publishing schemes (31 Janaury) passes.
we also see the discussion forum as a good place to keep up to date with local developments like applications for JR and would be very interested to hear if anyone knows of any more.
cheers ros
Law firm Irwin Mitchell has launched legal action against five councils after being instructed by residents who believe proposals in their region are unfair (Birmingham, Haringey, Hackney, Rochdale and Sheffield). Lawyers at the firm have also been contacted by others affected and are investigating several further councils ...
update on the haringey JR ...
Mr Justice Underhill reserved judgment and said he could deliver a ruling on Wednesday or Thursday ...
Council Tax Support Schemes [ I am not sure if this is the right forum but perhaps if not my question can be re-directed ].
Under the new Act are Councils able to opt out of section 13a [1c] discretioanry discounts. ?
I see that some Councils are saying that as their new scheme does not make any reference to 13A [1c] it does not apply to the new scheme.
I had understood that as well the requirement to introduce a CTS scheme they would also be bound by the 13a [1c] part of the Act.
It was a very useful tool to obtain discretionary reductions under the old Regulations and I wonder if Councils are taking this opportumity to ditch it from their new schemes.
http://www.haringeyindependent.co.uk/news/10213537.Judge_rules_against_council_tax_challenge/
Haringey win but leave to appeal has been granted.
court of appeal tomorrow?
‘The Court of Appeal will tomorrow (12 February) hear a judicial review challenge against the London Borough of Haringey’s council tax reduction scheme.
Last week Mr Justice Underhill dismissed the claim brought by law firm Irwin Mitchell on behalf of a local resident, but gave permission to appeal.
The High Court judge ruled that the consultation undertaken by the local authority was fair.
The Haringey case is one of a number of challenges being brought by law firm Irwin Mitchell against local authorities as they bring in council tax rebate schemes.
The schemes, which will replace council tax benefit, are due to come into force in April.
Irwin Mitchell has questioned why some councils are not taking up a Government offer of a grant if they limited council tax rebates to 8.5%. It has also suggested that some authorities are in breach of their duties under the Equality Act 2010.’