Case study: Public Interest Law Centre

The Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) centres its work on long‑standing relationships with communities and campaigners, using these to hold public authorities to account and challenge unlawful state practice through strategic litigation, legal representation, research and legal education.

PILC works across intersecting areas including state accountability, housing and land justice, and migrants’ rights.

PILC has a five‑year, £355,000 core Strengthening Justice grant under our 2025–30 strategy.

PILC specialises in legal challenges to public bodies such as local councils and government departments, with a focus on challenging unfair policies and practices affecting working‑class and marginalised communities. Much of its work is delivered through a legal hub model, enabling grassroots groups, activists and frontline organisations to combine their wider organising and advocacy with legal action.

PILC always advises the groups and campaigners it works with that legal action is one tactic amongst many – not a replacement for campaigning – and does not displace the leadership of the groups most affected. This enables the organisation to build and maintain meaningful relationships with its clients and partners that are based on shared values and that last beyond the end of specific legal cases.

PILC’s organisational priorities and direction for litigation emerges from these relationships with grassroots and specialist organisations, who are the first to identify patterns of unlawful or harmful treatment. This is particularly important when accessing evidence. For example, a strategic housing challenge against Camden Council emerged from PILC’s sustained collaboration with women’s organisations supporting survivors of domestic abuse. Their frontline expertise helped frame legal arguments, evidence the wider impact of mixed‑gender emergency accommodation and ensure that the case challenged a systemic practice rather than remaining an isolated dispute.

This approach strengthened the impact and legitimacy of PILC’s legal action. By grounding the challenge in collective experience and specialist knowledge, the case not only secured an improved outcome for the individual survivor but also prompted changes to how the local authority assessed and accommodated women fleeing abuse.