A human rights organisation is taking the national provider of legal aid to court because it is refusing to help rough sleepers challenge councils over the use of potentially unlawful powers to move them on.

Liberty has launched the legal challenge against the Legal Aid Agency because they will not offer assistance to rough sleepers and other local residents who cannot afford to pay lawyers if they want to challenge local authorities’ use of public space protection orders (PSPOs).

A PSPO allows councils to ban activities they deem to have a detrimental effect on the lives of others. But many have been used to ban rough sleeping – wrongly equating poverty with antisocial behaviour in defiance of Home Office guidance, Liberty said.

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“Many local authorities are criminalising those in need, but the Legal Aid Agency’s position robs all but the wealthy of their ability to challenge council abuse of power. It is essential this case goes ahead so that anyone can challenge illegitimate public space protection orders,” said Rosie Brighouse, a lawyer for Liberty.

The LAA insists that ordinarily PSPO challenges do not fall under the scope of the scheme.

A Guardian investigation in May found that a growing number of vulnerable homeless people are being fined, given criminal convictions and even imprisoned for begging and rough sleeping. Despite updated Home Office guidance at the start of the year, which instructs councils not to target people for being homeless and sleeping rough, over 50 local authorities have PSPOs in place prohibiting begging and loitering, among other things.

Local authorities in England and Wales have issued hundreds of fixed-penalty notices and pursued criminal convictions for “begging”, “persistent and aggressive begging” and “loitering” since they were given strengthened powers to combat antisocial behaviour in 2014.

A Poole resident sought to challenge her borough council’s PSPO, which criminalises rough sleeping and begging, in June 2018. But the case was put on hold when the LAA refused to help, saying the case was of no benefit to the client and insisting any litigation could be financed by crowdfunding instead. The body is also interpreting the law in a manner which makes legal aid completely unavailable for PSPO cases, Liberty said.

The human rights organisation has asked the High Court for permission to challenge the agency’s position. In its submissions to the Court, the organisation contends that locals are directly affected by any measures which put them at risk of criminalisation and that the ability to challenge PSPOs is of public importance.

Public space protection orders are already notoriously difficult to challenge, according to Liberty, as legal cases must be lodged within six weeks of an order coming into force. The LAA’s stance compounds the situation, making it almost impossible to get to court.

Official figures show rough sleeping in England has increased for the seventh consecutive year, and charities say even this steep rise fails to capture the true level of street homelessness. Statistics published by the government earlier this year showed that an estimated 4,751 people bedded down outside overnight in 2017, up 15% on the previous year.

An LAA spokesperson said: “The Legal Aid Agency can only grant legal aid where the LASPO Act and regulations allow.

“Legal Aid may be available for public space protection orders via exceptional case funding, subject to a statutory test to demonstrate a risk of breach of human rights, and the usual means and merits tests.”