Cherry v LB Tower Hamlets

Recorder Hollington QC; Central London County Court; 11 January 2018; unreported but transcript available.

In a statutory homelessness appeal on whether a homeless applicant was vulnerable and so in priority need, NowMedical applied the wrong test of “unable to cope” rather than whether the homeless person is “less able than an ordinary person to cope with homelessness”. NowMedical’s psychiatrist, Dr James Wilson, has been an expert rather than a treating psychiatrist since 2012 which puts him at a disadvantage relative to a practising psychiatrist. The only reasonable conclusion was that the appellant was vulnerable and so in priority need so the decision was varied to state that.

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