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.
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Archive
I joined a bunch of landlord groups to subtly manipulate them into being better people
Luke This Is A Lot (No paywall)So, about a year ago I joined a bunch of a landlord groups on Facebook and Nextdoor. I’ve worked diligently to manipulate them into taking pro-tenant actions, and it actually has kind of worked? Here’s the general strategy: 1. Make some posts detailing how I run my “businesss”1 and ask a few questions. 2. Establish credibility by earning their trust by posting helpful information. 3. Politely suggest taking actions that unequivocally benefit the tenant by dressing them up as beneficial to the landlord.
https://www.thisisalot.com/unhinged-opinions/i-joined-a-bunch-of…
# Hot topic International, Rent.We must incentivise landlords and tenants to access energy improvement grants
Dan Wilson Craw Politics Home (No paywall)Private renters have been more exposed than other tenures to increased energy costs in the two years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One in four private renters is in fuel poverty, and 55 per cent of private rented homes have an energy efficiency rating of band D or below, compared to 30 per cent of social housing. Poor energy efficiency means it costs hundreds, sometimes thousands, of pounds more to keep your home warm. Many of us simply can’t afford to, so put up with cold temperatures in our homes. This has a direct impact on our health – but an indirect one, too, because cold temperatures lead to condensation and mould. The health impacts of poor housing are estimated to cost the NHS £1.1bn per year.
https://www.politicshome.com/thehouse/article/incentivise-landlo…
# Hot topic International, Utilities electricity water gas.‘If I Had to Leave This Place, I Would Probably Leave New York’
Wendy Goodman Curbed (No paywall)Joshua Charow’s book, Loft Law, The Last of New York City’s Original Artist Lofts, from Damiani Books, tells the story, through pictures and interviews, of the people who live in some of the most romantically bohemian spaces in the city. Many of them have lived in their lofts for decades, even before it was legal to do so, fixing up the drafty, derelict spaces. Gentrification followed, and landlords did their best to cash in, often by getting rid of these pioneers. So a band of artists got together in 1979 and worked to found what became the Loft Law in 1982, which helped establish the Loft Board to oversee the conversion of raw spaces into rent-stabilized residential homes.
https://www.curbed.com/article/brooklyn-artists-loft-law-joshua-…
# Must read, History International, Rent.Inaction on no-fault evictions blamed for thousands facing homelessness
Gwyn Topham The Guardian (No paywall)Households in England have been threatened more than 80,000 times with homelessness due to no-fault evictions since the Conservative government first announced it would outlaw the practice, according to a homeless charity. Promised legislation to scrap section 21 notices, which allow landlords to end tenancies at will with just two months’ notice, were first announced in parliament exactly five years ago, on 15 April 2019, by the then prime minister, Theresa May, and were repeated in the Conservative manifesto, but the bill has been repeatedly delayed.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/15/no-fault-evictio…
# Hot topic International, Eviction.Single mum with arthritis faces homelessness after 'absolutely disgusting' no-fault eviction
Liam Geraghty The Big Issue (UK) (No paywall)A single mum has called for people facing a no-fault eviction to be given more time to find a new home as she faces a race against time to avoid homelessness next month. Debbie Graham, 54, is desperately searching for a new place to live after receiving a Section 21 notice in February, leaving her until 26 April to find a new home. The part-time mental health support worker, who suffers with arthritis, said she now expects to be sofa surfing at her friends while her 20-year-old son Jamie stays with his grandmother after giving up on finding another private rented home. As the Renters Reform Bill looks set to be “watered down” with amendments when it returns to parliament in the coming weeks, Graham backed rent campaigners’ calls for longer notice periods so tenants can find a place to live. “It’s looking like I will be homeless,” said Graham.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/no-fault-eviction-homeless…
# Must read International, Eviction.Will pet bonds really be a win-win? I’m not holding my breath
Kristin Kelly The Spinoff (No paywall)Renting in New Zealand, generally speaking, sucks. At the time of the last census, home-ownership rates were the lowest they’d been in almost 70 years yet as a country we continue to think of, and regulate for, renting as though it is an interim measure on the path to the Kiwi dream. Compared to the OECD average, our rentals are expensive, and in short supply. Their quality remains lower than owner-occupied homes and in 2019 we ranked fifth-equal-lowest in the OECD for restrictiveness of land controls and tenancy security.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/16-04-2024/will-pet-bonds-real…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Rent controls work: They don’t reduce housing supply but they do limit profit
Ricardo Tranjan The Toronto Star (No paywall)With the housing debate in Canada today so focused on building new housing, it’s easy to lose sight of an obvious fact: most tenants are currently housed. What is more, they are housed in suitable-sized places that don’t need major repairs. The challenge so many tenants face today is not finding a place but affording and keeping the one they already have. The response to this problem is well-known: effective rent controls. In recent years, new studies have demonstrated that rent controls work. They stabilize rent increases without negative effects. Provincial governments could put an end to skyrocketing rents right now — if they were really interested in doing so.
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/rent-controls-work-…
# Hot topic International, Rent.International evidence shows that increasing tenants’ rights does not scare off landlords
Jamie Gollings Conservative Home (No paywall)It seems that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities are resigned to pulling measures to ban no-fault evictions from their Renters Reform Bill. In a recent letter to Conservative MPs, Jacob Young, the Levelling-Up Minister, outlined plans “to require the Lord Chancellor to publish an assessment on barriers to possession and the readiness of the courts in advance of abolishing Section 21 for existing tenancies”. This refers to Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988, which gives landlords the right to evict tenants with two months’ notice, even if they have perfectly abided by their tenancy agreements, whenever they wish.
https://conservativehome.com/2024/04/11/jamie-gollings-internati…
# Hot topic International, Rent.