2025: Our biggest moments!

It has been a packed and powerful year at PILC. In challenging times, our team has stood with grassroots communities - bringing strategic legal challenges, hosting community meetings, producing influential reports, representing clients in inquiries, and more.

As 2025 ends and we step into 2026, we carry forward hope, resilience, and resistance, ready to keep supporting all those fighting back against growing injustice.

Here’s some highlights from our dedicated team over the past 12 months (in no particular order): 

In response to the atrocities committed in Gaza, the Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) led a distinguished team of legal experts - including renowned human rights barrister Michael Mansfield KC - in submitting a landmark 240-page report.

The report, the first of its kind, presents detailed, rigorously researched, and compelling evidence concerning the alleged involvement of British nationals in war crimes committed in Gaza. PILC and PCHR submitted the report on behalf of Palestinians in Gaza and the UK.

The dossier is currently under consideration by the Metropolitan Police War Crimes Unit. Read more about it here and check Declassified’ s piece here.

The Covid Inquiry team has had a busy year, beginning with the Module 4 hearings in January on vaccines and therapeutics. Anna Miller of Doctors of the World UK, giving evidence on behalf of the Migrant Primary Care Access Group (represented by PILC and also including Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), Kanlungan Filipino Consortium, Medact), testified that the Government ignored public health warnings and undermined the pandemic response in favour of an anti-migrant agenda.  Watch the clip and find out more here.

In February, the preliminary hearings of the final module in the Inquiry - Module 10 - considered the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on wider society.  Representing four groups in this module, The Justice Sector Coalition (JSC), Migrant Rights Consortium (MRC), The Prison and Immigration Detention Advocacy Group (PIDAG) and the Domestic Abuse Group (DA Group) you can watch and read all submissions here.  Following this, it was outrageous that two groups - JSC and PIDAG - were not granted funding which led them to withdraw.

In July, the Frontline Migrant Health Workers’ Group (FMHWG) - consisting of United Voices of the World (UVW), the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) trade unions, and Kanlungan - provided oral evidence at the Module 6 of the Covid-19 Inquiry focused on social care.  The evidence laid bare how the combination of repressive immigration policies and a privatised, profit-driven care sector produced unsafe, exploitative conditions for workers and worsening health outcomes for those they care for.

Module 2’s findings were published in November.  Southall Black Sisters (SBS) and Solace Women’s Aid, who we represented as Core Participants in this module which examined UK decision-making and political governance during the pandemic, were disappointed.  They felt that the Inquiry failed to put forward vital, life-saving recommendations on domestic abuse.  Particularly for migrant victim-survivors with no recourse to public funds.  Check out their full response and our take here.

Module 10’s main hearings are kicking off in February next year!

In October we made our opening statement to the Inquiry representing Youth against Racism in Europe (YRE), Lois Austin (YRE, Socialist Party), Hannah Sell (YRE, Socialist Party), Judy Beishon (Socialist Party), Dave Nellist (former Labour MP, 1983–1992) and ‘Lewis’ (Movement for Justice).

The statement, available here, highlighted how undercover policing targeted young people campaigning against racism and the far right in the 1990s, an attack not only on individuals but on the democratic right to protest and organise. 

Commissioned by PILC to form evidence for Module 3 of the Covid Inquiry and highlighting the systemic injustices that frontline migrant health workers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr John Lister’s report Forty years of failure: Private sector contracting and its impact on the NHS offers a scathing critique of the NHS’s increasing privatisation.  A guide was also produced as a summary of the report:  Profiteering, Privatisation and Outsourcing in the NHS.

PILC’s Gentrification Project team sought to expose how the current VAT regime appears to incentivise property developers to demolish buildings rather than refurbish them - a significant concern given that around 50,000 buildings are demolished each year and the built environment accounts for up to 40% of the UK’s total carbon emissions. Jules Moscovici produced an authoritative report that confirmed these findings:

Is VAT incentivising housing demolition? A literature review

Both reports were launched in-person with powerful contributions from our team and campaigners.

Representing a member of the incredible Block the Block campaign, supported by Greater Manchester Tenants Union, we were in the High Court in Manchester judicially reviewing the decision to grant planning permission for student accommodation on a site where the community had created an alternative plan for badly needed supported housing, a neighbourhood hub and a café.

Although unsuccessful in the end, this case clarified the scope of planning committee members’ decision-making powers and has also substantially delayed the development. The struggle of the campaign, including the legal challenge, has been documented in a theatre piece which has so far been shown in across Manchester and London to rave reviews!  This is an important example of the law being a tool for campaigners.

We issued a legal challenge in the High Court on behalf of two Lambeth council tenants and members of the Lambeth Tenants Heat Campaign, in response to excessive and unaffordable increases in heating charges. The claim challenges Lambeth Council’s energy-related service charges which have risen steeply, including by over 300% in 2023. Many tenants have been left facing unaffordable bills, causing serious financial hardship, distress, and threats of eviction.

Council-run heat networks often require residents to pay for their heating via tenancy ‘service charges’. Service charges are effectively treated as part of rent by Lambeth and tenants can be evicted for non-payment. Tenants on the heat network cannot change supplier and are bound by terms allowing the council to increase the heat network charges without limitation. Those terms were not clearly explained at the outset of the tenancies and could not be realistically avoided by tenants without the risk of eviction. Despite consistent requests, the council have never provided the criteria by which it calculated the charges.

The legal challenge argues: (1) the tenancy agreement contains an onerous and unfair term in breach of the Consumer Rights Act, and (2) the council’s actions have violated the rights our clients have under Article 1 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. 

Hear directly from campaigners and impacted Lambeth tenants in this BBC Morning Live segment, from 12.40 onwards: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002ktdf/morning-live-series-7-14102025#t=12m41s

In the face of continuing attacks on asylum seekers, we recirculated our guide for non-lawyers to support those who are subject to racist abuse in asylum accommodation. Whilst Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson and their supporters believe asylum seekers are living it up in hotels, we began to develop work with the amazing Magpie Project to highlight the conditions in which asylum seeking families are living in these hotels, overcrowded, with no cooking facilities and seemingly without any time limit – some families report they have been stuck for over 2 years! We also partnered with the mighty Migrants Rights Network (MRN) to challenge the Home Secretary’s decision to increase Immigration Raids to control borders and tackle illegal working. We are building on MRN’s report entitled ‘The Anatomy of Raids’ and further research we conducted through disclosure and witness statements, demonstrating the fundamentally racist nature of those raids focusing on types of businesses associated with migrant labour: beauty salons, car washes, take- aways and construction sites. The case was heard in the High Court in November 2025 to seek permission for a full hearing. We are now awaiting a decision. 

We’ve also continued our project with the Roma Support Group (RSG) to improve access to housing justice for Roma communities. We’ve done this through community advice forums, collaborating with Roma advocates and supporting RSG with casework. We have some exciting plans for 2026 to challenge the barriers to identifying discrimination faced by Roma communities, watch this space!

We will continue to challenge the narrative that blames migrants for the current socio-economic situation, which we know is dire for so many people.

We assisted EC1VOICES with successfully resisting the appropriation of land at Finsbury Leisure Centre, part of a redevelopment scheme that would have seen the loss of treasured community football pitches and the home of the City of London Football Club. Following a letter before claim, the council withdrew the decision and dropped the redevelopment plans. A huge victory for the local community who fought so hard to keep this public asset in community use!

We also issued judicial review proceedings on behalf of Guardians of Whitewebbs challenging the development of part of Whitewebbs Park by a private company. A beautiful historic Park in Enfield, Whitewebbs has been enjoyed by the public for nearly 100 years thanks to predecessor local authorities, which acquired and dedicated it for permanent public use. The proposals would remove public access to a large proportion of the open area within the Park and degrade its immense ecological, historical, and cultural value.   Watch this space for continued legal and campaigning action next year!

The Gypsy and Traveller team has been particularly active this year, achieving notable successes in County Court and High Court challenges, including:

Medway Council v Heron and others, Claim No KO1ME613, County Court at Canterbury, May 2025

The Gypsy and Traveller team supported these clients to resist possession proceedings alongside their very committed Councillor Satinder Shokar (who was instrumental throughout). The clients, represented by both PILC and Community Law Partnership, respectively had been placed on a disused park and ride site by the Council and been given a licence to occupy for 3 months. 29 people, comprising of multiple families (including 14 children) would have been made homeless roadside in caravans had the possession proceedings by Medway Council been successful. The Judge determined that granting possession would be an unlawful interference with the clients Article 8 rights (right to respect for private and family life, etc) and that the Council had not considered the best interests of the children. The clients also, separately, obtained planning permission for the Site, such that they are now residing lawfully on a Gypsy and Traveller Site.

Casey and Ors v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and Crawley Borough Council [2025] EWHC 3138 (Admin)

The Gypsy and Traveller Team represented these clients in their High Court appeal challenging the refusal of planning permission. The clients, who had young children, challenged the Secretary of State’s decision to dismiss their appeal against Crawley Borough Council’s refusal of planning permission, arguing that the refusal was based on an error by the Inspector. It was argued before the Court that the Inspector had misunderstood where caravans would be sited and had mistakenly believed several touring caravans would be located in a higher risk flood zone than they actually would be.  Additionally, it was highlighted that the Inspector had acted irrationally in not assessing and weighing in the balance safety matters more broadly. The Judge found in favour of the clients on both grounds, resulting in the planning permission decision being quashed.

2025 was the first year that PILC had a presence at Appleby Horse Fair – the largest annual gathering of Gypsies and Travellers in Europe.  The team not only promoted our work but also surveyed attendees to identify emerging legal needs, ensuring our efforts are targeted where they are most needed.

Finally, check out our Keith being interviewed by Law Friends Society as part of the Gypsy & Traveller Law Update, Spring 2025.

We were in the High Court in June supporting residents and campaigners from the Homes for Lambeth Tenants  who are facing eviction from council-owned estates in Lambeth.  We argued that local authorities were prohibited in law from renting assured shorthold tenancies, and that Lambeth had created a company, Homes for Lambeth, to circumvent this. Unfortunately the Judge was not convinced of the this argument, find judgement here.  Nonetheless, this case helped expose a legal loophole which appears to be utilised by councils across the country.

We were back in the High Court in October, this time against the Mayor of London with a case concerning inadequate oversight of estate regeneration in Custom House, Newham.  It focussed on Mayoral oversight of the delivery of sufficient social rent homes in London, and also highlighted the misuse of “genuinely affordable housing” terminology and the absence of clear records on tenants’ rights of return.  Check out this blog and short video we made in the run up to the case.   The claim is currently being appealed to the Court of Appeal, watch this space!

In August, PILC and European Legal Support Center (ELSC) filed a formal complaint with the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) against the Director of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI). We alleged serious breaches of the SRA’s Principles and Code of Conduct, including the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) to intimidate and silence Palestine solidarity work. We also urged the SRA to investigate whether UKLFI operates as an unregulated law firm, to bring it under formal oversight and where appropriate to sanction it.   Following our submissions, the SRA confirmed it was opening an official investigation.   Read more about it here.

This legal action is part of our broader commitment to defending free expression and challenging lawfare used to stifle civil society and democratic rights, particularly in the context of Palestine solidarity.

In September we were contacted by 3 British nationals about to set sail to Gaza to break the illegal blockade in the midst of a genocide.   We collaborated at record speed across teams to offer legal representation to these brave activists.  We worked pro bono and out of hours to pressure action from the UK Government to provide consular assistance both before and after interception by Israeli forces.  This included threatening formal legal action.  Our clients were intercepted by the Israeli forces and had a difficult time in detention, but were released shortly afterwards, with support from the Government to get home.

We plan to share our expertise for any future flotillas and we are proud of the extra hours we put to support such an important cause!

None of the above would be possible if it wasn’t for the daily inspiration we get from the communities we work with and those who tirelessly campaign for social justice.

We are also incredibly fortunate to have a really tight team, who are committed and supportive of one another.

We wish you all a restorative break over the festive season and look forward to go again in the new year.