25 July 2023

In 2023 Warwick LinC undertook a project designed to examine the delays in changes to housing allocations for tenants in social housing. Here one volunteer, Katie, reflects on what she learnt from her time volunteering with us.

In 2023, I had the opportunity to volunteer with the Strategic Social Justice Clinic for its housing law project. Since starting University, I have realised I see my future career centring around social justice rather than corporate law so, when I saw this opportunity advertised, I was quick to apply for it. The project lasted for 10 weeks and, in particular, we looked at the impact of delays in Coventry City Council’s processing of particular types of social housing applications. By the end of the project, we drafted a Briefing Note and a Pre-Action Protocol Letter outlining specific challenges to current policies to assist Central England Law Centre Staff in relevant cases.

At the beginning of the project, we were given an overview of the statutory framework for housing allocations. As part of this we received insight from external speakers including Neil Morland, a housing consultant and former special advisor to the government on social housing. It was insightful to learn about the policy issues underpinning housing allocations from a specialist and to engage in a critical conversation about any questions we may have. We then moved on to a group discussion of potential areas of challenge. This included a debate where we were separated into teams representing the claimant and respondent to test the strength of our ideas. After the debate, we were given feedback on our arguments and decided which areas of challenge we should proceed with. We then spent the last few weeks of the project drafting the Briefing Note and Pre-Action Protocol Letter.

Towards the end of the project, we had the opportunity to present our work to a group of specialists interested in this area of social housing law. This included the Head of Housing at the Law Centre, Hugh Wilkinson. Although it was initially nerve-wracking to present our work to experts, it provided us with a valuable opportunity to engage in a critical discussion about general issues in housing allocations. We received feedback after the presentation, including that our work was well-drafted and will be directly useful to the Law Centre in relevant cases.

To anyone interested in social justice, I would strongly recommend volunteering with the Strategic Social Justice Clinic. It has given me the opportunity to learn about an area of injustice I have always felt passionate about, while doing work which will genuinely make a difference to those affected by current policies. It was rewarding to volunteer for a project with a local focus, and to learn about the issues underpinning a housing allocations system we live under. In fact, after learning about the severity of these issues, I decided to focus my dissertation on the safety regulations for rented housing and I am enjoying researching this further. Throughout my time volunteering, I feel that I have developed a deeper understanding of the operation of housing law in practice which I could not get from a purely academic viewpoint. This project forced me out of my comfort zone, but the feedback provided throughout has increased my confidence in my own abilities as I have seen my legal skills improving. Even though the project was only 10 weeks long, I have gained a much deeper understanding of housing allocations and how the judicial review process operates in practice.

Overall, my time volunteering was extremely insightful and has opened doors which I had not previously considered. I would like to thank the Warwick LinC team for their support throughout the project and reiterate that I strongly recommend other students take the opportunity to volunteer for future projects.

Katie Bostock – SSJC Volunteer 2023