Council liability: the retreat from Anns

In the three years since the position of local authorities in negligence was last considered in this journal (SS 2/4), there has been a considerable turnaround in judicial attitudes. Far from being every Plaintiff's favourite Defendant in defective building cases, the current state of the law reflects a more limited liability. It is the purpose of this paper to examine the way in which this has occurred and the problems that still dog the area.