Housing is emerging as one of the biggest areas of unmet legal need, according to lawyers observing MP surgeries – as new research suggests more than 12 million people in England cannot access a local housing legal aid provider.

Volunteers from Hogan Lovells, Eversheds Sutherland, Addleshaw Goddard and Mishcon de Reya have been attending MPs’ surgeries around the country to collect data about the legal issues that constituents are bringing to their MPs.

The research is part of ongoing work to see how unmet legal need has changed since Hogan Lovells and the pro bono all-party parliamentary group published a ‘Mind the Gap’ report in 2016. The latest research project is being led by charity LawWorks and the City firms.

So far, the volunteers have observed 100 constituent appointments. The fieldwork is scheduled to run until the end of the year.

Hogan Lovells associate Annie Lund told a meeting of the pro bono and public legal education all-party parliamentary group yesterday that housing and immigration are emerging as the most prevalent issues but there is not enough capacity in the local area to refer constituents to specialist and legal advice services. The majority of people were being referred to Citizens Advice, she said.

The findings come as a report from LexisNexis published today says that 12.5 million people in England have no access to housing legal aid in their local areas amid rising demand for support.

Law Society president Lubna Shuja said the report echoes the Society’s own findings that many people across the country, particularly on low incomes, are facing serious legal problems.

‘The cost-of-living crisis is likely to increase demand on a system that is already at breaking point, and the UK government urgently needs to address these problems in the civil and criminal justice systems to avoid a crisis in our legal sector,’ Shuja said.

The Ministry of Justice announced last month that an extra £10m a year will be invested in housing legal aid so that thousands more people can access legal advice when they fall into difficult times and face the threat of eviction.

Yesterday's APPG meeting, which was attended by attorney general Victoria Prentis MP and solicitor general Michael Tomlinson, was part of a series of events to mark pro bono week.