The House of Lords handed down judgment in the matter of Hanoman v London Borough of Southwark [2009] UKHL 29 on 10th of June 2009. The appeal from the Court of Appeal’s decision, reported at [2009] 1 WLR 374, concerned whether the crediting of housing benefit to a tenant’s rent account represented a ‘payment of rent’ for the purposes of section 153B of the Housing Act 1985 c.68.

The House rejected a literal construction of the expression ‘payment of rent’ put forward by the local authority, and the appeal was dismissed. Amongst other arguments, the House held that to use a literal expression would produce different treatment between tenants entitled to housing benefit whose landlords could provide housing by rent rebate, and those landlords who could not do so. This difference was not supported by any policy and could not be supposed to reflect parliamentary intention.