Housing Law Practitioners’ Association (HLPA), Legal Aid Practitioners Group (LAPG) and Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) respond to Ministry of Justice (MOJ) announcement on Increases to Housing and Immigration Civil Legal Aid Fees

2 July 2025

HLPA, LAPG and ILPA welcome today’s confirmation from the MOJ that fees for housing and immigration legal aid will be increased. Legal aid fees for these two vital areas of publicly-funded legal advice and representation were set in 1996, and since that time have been subject to cuts and inflationary devaluation. Fee stagnation has had a severe impact on the supply of legal aid services to people and communities across England and Wales.

We therefore welcome the sentiment behind the government’s proposal to increase fees. It is encouraging that the government has acknowledged that legal aid is a vital public service. That it underpins the rule of law and turns legal rights into a reality. That the civil legal aid system is under extreme pressure. That providers face serious challenges around retention, profitability and sustainability and that these challenges are undermining the ability of some of the most vulnerable people in society from accessing the legal services they so desperately need.

It is also encouraging that the government has acknowledged that investing in civil legal aid will have a beneficial impact on other priority areas of public policy, such as improving the asylum application and appeal process, supporting victims of trafficking, reducing homelessness and expanding the rights of private and social tenants.

As set out in our consultation responses, we also broadly support the principles that underpin these policy proposals. However we remain deeply concerned that these proposals simply don’t go far enough and it is therefore highly likely that without further investment and reform, the government will not realise those principles. We are disappointed, for example, that while the MOJ appears to acknowledge the concerns of the vast majority of respondents, they have not taken heed of those concerns by implementing the higher rates required to address challenges such as sustainability, retention and profitability.

We also remain extremely concerned that the current fee increases only relate to housing and immigration legal aid when the entire civil legal aid system is in crisis.

The government promises that the changes will be implemented as soon as operationally possible, but no clear timeline has been provided for when these increases will come into effect. We are also concerned that the ongoing fall-out of the Legal Aid Agency data breach will cause further delay as the Agency seeks to restore and improve its I.T. infrastructure. The need for the LAA to take its systems offline as a result of the data breach has generated yet more pressure and uncertainty for providers and is further undermining the sustainability of the legal aid sector. It is therefore incumbent on the government to introduce these fee increases as soon as possible.

Key points in response to the consultation outcome:

  • Some areas of housing and immigration legal aid work will only see a 10% increase in fees. This does no more than offset a fee cut introduced in 2011 and does nothing to account for inflationary increases in the cost of delivering services since fees were set in 1996.
  • Nearly three decades have elapsed since the government last reviewed legal aid fees. It is imperative that this situation never arises again. We are disappointed therefore that the government has not taken on board the views of many consultation respondents by introducing a mechanism for regularly reviewing legal aid fees and uprating them in line with increases to the costs of delivering this vital public service.
  • The increases will not be sufficient to stem the flow of practitioners from the legal aid sector, particularly in the context of increases in other costs, such as the recent NI increases and the extraordinarily high levels of inflation in recent years.
  • Increases are needed across the entire legal aid sector with the aim of creating a truly holistic system of Civil Legal Aid which puts the needs of vulnerable clients at its heart.
  • While changes are promised to relieve the administrative burdens on legal aid providers, there is no detail as to what changes will be made and when these will be introduced.
  • 7 months have been lost during the consultation period where providers have continued to work under intolerable financial strain. The government must now implement these increases as a matter of absolute urgency.

Notes

1. This statement has been released in response to the government’s publication of Civil Legal Aid: towards a sustainable future – Consultation Response on 2 July 2025, available here: Civil legal aid: Towards a sustainable future – GOV.UK
2. For further information or media enquiries please contact:
HLPA: Vicky Fewkes, Executive Committee member – vicky.fewkes@ealinglaw.org.uk
LAPG: Chris Minnoch, CEO – chris.minnoch@lapg.co.uk
ILPA: Zoe Bantleman, Legal Director – zoe.bantleman@ilpa.org.uk
3. Our responses to the government consultation can be downloaded here:
HLPA: Please contact Vicky Fewkes – vicky.fewkes@ealinglaw.org.uk
LAPG: https://lapg.co.uk/lapgs-response-to-the-civil-legal-aid-fees-consultation/
ILPA: https://ilpa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/ILPAs-Response-to-MoJ-Consultation-21032025.pdf