Will the Renters (Reform) Bill fuel a Housing Catastrophe in the Private Rented Sector?

(by Tola Amodu) The rented housing market in the UK has historically relied on supply of housing stock from the state. More recently, the private rental sector has grown significantly in size attracted by continuing low interest rates. This blog post argues that with a change in the economic landscape, quite a bit more needs to be done, particularly establishing a clear knowledge base for regulation and engaging both landlords and tenants, if the sector is to be improved and catastrophe avoided.

Competition litigation funding doesn’t grow on trees – unintended consequences of the UKSC’s PACCAR decision

(by Sebastian Peyer, Adrian Render, Chris Thomas)The recent Supreme Court decision in PACCAR has put litigation funding in competition opt-out actions high on the agenda.[1] In this blog post we critically analyse an obiter (non-binding) statement the Supreme Court made in the judgment, which suggests the litigation funding and return on investment can only be recovered where not all damages awarded can be distributed to members of the class and only where the Competition Appeal Tribunal makes an order allowing funders to have any remaining funds. We argue that, despite the Court’s assertion, litigation funders can and must be paid before a potential damages award is distributed to the class upon judgment. Although the Supreme Court’s statement is not legally binding, the continuing uncertainty as to the recovery of funders’ success fees has a negative effect on the availability of litigation funding for opt-out collective actions, especially for ‘good’ claims on behalf of small and medium-sized groups.