Public Law Project (‘PLP’) is an independent national legal charity. We are researchers, lawyers, trainers, and public law policy experts. Our aim is to make sure state decision-making is fair and lawful and that
anyone can hold the state to account. For over 30 years we have represented and supported people marginalised through poverty, discrimination, or disadvantage when they have been affected by unlawful state decision-making.
Our homes are fundamental to our health and wellbeing. Decent and affordable homes must be available for everyone, but right now they’re not.
The lack of a long-term plan for housing has led to the housing crisis we are living through today. The issues we face around housing are systemic. If we don’t act to fix the housing crisis, things will get much worse for people living in England.
Housing challenges are faced by people of all ages, but the stories of older people on a low income who are renting are often hidden and rarely part of the conversation.
Yet a growing number of older people are renting privately, and it is essential that the private rented sector in England delivers for them too.
A briefing paper explaining how council tax is applied to empty properties in England, Scotland and Wales, including the ’empty homes premium’.
This paper outlines a proposal for transformative long term change, to develop a new public employment service, which should be underpinned by strategic alignment between the UK’s industrial strategy and employment support services, and action to bring more decision-making about jobcentres and wider employment support services closer to local communities.
In this study, we spoke to disabled people in the UK to find out what ‘financial wellbeing’ means to them and the difficulties they face in trying to improve their financial wellbeing. We used the information to help us measure the financial wellbeing of disabled people in a survey. The 815 disabled people who took part in the survey were members of a UK wide research panel of approximately 3,500 people run by the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC), which is broadly representative of the wider disabled population.
This paper considers trends in leasehold ownership, ongoing problems associated with the sector, and Government plans for future legislation.
Children need a good night’s sleep in order to thrive, yet our latest research shows that families in crisis are having to prioritise essentials such as food, heating and electricity over things like replacing mouldy bedding or fixing a broken bed.
Government plans for adult social care have undergone several changes in the last decade. In December 2022, the House of Lords Adult Social Care Committee published a report examining the adult social care system and making recommendations to make it a “progressive, visible, fairer and kinder system”. In July 2023, the government published a response. It pointed to commitments in its April 2023 white paper, including reform of the adult social care workforce, housing for people who required care and tackling delayed discharge and unnecessary admissions to hospitals.
Following the success of the 28-home 2021/22 Warm Home Prescription (WHP) pilot in Gloucestershire, Energy Systems Catapult, in partnership with local NHS partners and local energy advice organisations, undertook the largest trial of its kind in 2022/23, supporting 823 vulnerable and low-income individuals in Aberdeen, Middlesbrough, Gloucestershire and London.
Living in a cold home can raise the risk of a number of health conditions, with an estimated 10,000 people dying each year across the UK as a result. Warm Home Prescription, invented by Energy Systems Catapult, works to find vulnerable people with health conditions made worse by the cold and gives them immediate, effective support to keep their home at a healthy, warm temperature.