Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
Australia isn't the only country tackling a housing crisis, what is happening overseas?
Nancy Notzon ABC (No paywall)Across the world, other countries face their own housing challenges and tackle them in different ways. Finland has slashed the number of homeless through radical change, while Paris has aggressive plans to keep lower income Parisians in the city. So how do their plans work, and are there takeaways for Australia?
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-drive/inter…
# Audio International, .Housing bill could create new rent control areas
Georgina Hayes BBC (No paywall)The Scottish government has published plans to introduce longer-term rent controls for the private sector. The Housing (Scotland) Bill will place a duty on local councils to carry out assessments on the state of private accommodation in their area. The bill - which comes against the backdrop of four local authorities declaring a housing emergency - has been welcomed by tenants' rights groups. But the Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) told BBC Scotland the legislation would exacerbate Scotland’s housing crisis.
# Must read International, Rent.‘This hits the wrong people’: holiday let owners say Hunt’s scrapping of tax relief won’t affect rich
Jedidajah Otte The Guardian (No paywall)Jen Boyle, a 64-year-old widow from Falkirk, owns and runs two small holiday lets on the Scottish island of Cumbrae, home to about 1,300 people. In the last tax year, the properties generated £15,000 in turnover, though Boyle’s personal profit was only around £5,000 after expenses. “I pay for heating, water rates, internet, new bedding, occasional repairs and for using the local launderette; I employ local cleaners, gardeners, a local guy who takes out my bins,” she says. “I only charge £420 a week in the high season. People who come to the island tend to be from the Glasgow area and generally don’t have a lot of money, so increasing my rates is not really an option.”
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/mar/31/this-hits-the-wron…
# Hot topic International, .Can this ‘ethical capitalist’ solve the UK’s social housing crisis?
Richard Partington The Guardian (No paywall)Britain is a nation obsessed with home ownership. A fundamental necessity for all turned commodity to speculate on, it is featured on daytime TV as entertainment, the sure-fire profit-spinner open to anyone. The truth, as we all know, is that the prospect of home ownership is drifting increasingly out of reach for millions. Figures released last week show that as few as 7% of local authorities in England and Wales have homes that can be bought for less than five times workers’ earnings and are therefore deemed “affordable”. In 1997 the figure was 88%.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/31/ethical-capital…
# Hot topic International, .Ireland’s true class divide: Home-owners hold 97% of wealth. Renters? Just 3%
()What is the easiest way to work out if someone in Ireland is well-off? Maybe ask them where they were educated? Check what they work as? Forget that – by far the easiest way is to ask them whether they own a home. If the answer is ‘Yes’, they almost certainly have decent ‘net wealth’. If the answer is ‘No, I rent’ – well, you can probably guess what that means. But just in case it isn’t clear, here are some stats to drive it home.
https://www.thejournal.ie/wealth-gap-home-ownership-renters-6345…
# Hot topic, Research alert International, Rent.France's winter housing 'truce' ends, advocates warn of record evictions
RFI Yahoo News (No paywall)Housing advocates in France are sounding the alarm over what they say is a worrying increase in the number of people who could end up kicked out of their housing as the yearly winter eviction moratorium comes to an end. People who are unable to pay rent are once facing police evictions and many will find themselves on the street for lack of other housing options. The annual five-month winter housing truce came to an end Sunday, and advocates are warning that some 140,000 people are facing eviction notices in 2024.
https://au.news.yahoo.com/frances-winter-housing-truce-ends-1522…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Rent.The Guardian view on tenants’ rights: the Tories have betrayed renters
The Guardian (No paywall)More than four years ago, the 2019 Conservative manifesto pledged to abolish no-fault evictions in England, in an effort to make tenancies more secure and remove the right of private landlords to evict people from their homes at will. In the past few years, a huge campaigning effort went into ensuring that this commitment would be kept. Last week, it became clear that it wouldn’t be. Jacob Young, a minister in Michael Gove’s levelling up department, revealed in a letter to Tory MPs that the government plans to amend the bill now making its way through parliament. The promised ban on no-fault evictions (also known as section 21 notices) will not be enacted until “the courts are ready” – at some unspecified future date.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/31/the-guardi…
# International, Eviction.New research shows NSW renters want action on eviction reform; strong backing from landlords and community
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)NSW renters want to see action from the NSW Government on promised rental reforms to end ‘no grounds’ evictions. New polling, undertaken by Ipsos Public Affairs for the Tenants’ Union of NSW, shows significant support from landlords for the reforms. The research also shows the community expects reforms should apply uniformly for all renters.
https://www.tenants.org.au/reports/new-research-shows-strong-sup…
# Must read, TUNSW in the media, Research alert NSW, .