The decision of the Supreme Court in the conjoined appeals in Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Hounslow v Powell, Leeds City Council v Hall, and Birmingham City Council v Frisby represents the culmination of a line of judgments demonstrating a slowly evolving acceptance, by the House of Lords and now the Supreme Court, of the European Court of Human Rights' position on applications brought by public authorities to recover possession of their properties from tenants occupying pursuant to various statutory regimes. The European Court of Human Rights has held that the protection of private and family life in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) demands that defendants in possession applications have the opportunity to argue that a possession order would be disproportionate. Further, in any such proportionality challenge, factual issues raised relating to personal circumstances of defendants should be considered by the relevant court.