South Gloucestershire Council v Titley & Anor [2006] EWHC 3117 (Admin) - the High Court has considered entitlement to a disability reduction.
Room - predominantly used LA appealed against a VT which allowed reduction in two cases
Mr Titley, who is profoundly deaf and lives alone in a two bedroomed house with a living room fitted with a hearing loop; and Mr Clothier, two of whose children, aged 20 and 33, have Downs Syndrome and spend a great majority of time each day alone in their bedrooms to which no physical adaptations have been made.
However, the High Court agrees with Howell-Williams v Wirral and R (Sandwell MBC) v Perks - that there needs to be a causative link between the disability and the requirement for the use of the room - that the room must be extra or additional, in the sense that it would not be required for the relevant purpose if the qualifying individual were not disabled. In consequence, the High Court upholds the local authority's appeal in both cases, on the basis that;
in Mr Titley's case, he uses the living room because it is a living room. He would do so anyway even if his hearing were unimpaired. It is the loop system, not the room in which it is placed, which is essential to his well-being by reason of the nature and extent of his disability. The room is in no sense additional.
in Mr Clothier's case, though more difficult, and closer to the borderline, the result is the same. If his children had no disability but were still living in the same house, they would each have their own bedroom anyway. The difference would be that they would spend less time in it, but neither bedroom is in any sense 'additional'
A full transcript of the case can be viewed by clicking the link;
South Gloucesterhire v Titley & Another
