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
The squabbling, the vomiting, the freeloading and the noisy sex: my 10 worst house-share moments
Alice Wilkinson The Guardian (No paywall)The only people I know who speak glowingly about house shares are the ones no longer living in them. When I hear someone describe their house-sharing era as the “best time of my life”, I know they have had at least two years to forget their trauma. That is not a luxury afforded to me – I am living in my eighth house share with my 18th housemate, still holding on to past horrors like they happened yesterday and facing the anxiety they may happen again. So here they are: the 10 worst moments from my many house shares.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/apr/09/the-squabbl…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Share houses.Rent burden causing housing stress, deputy says
Gemma Daubeney BBC (No paywall)Jersey ministers are being urged to come up with a different way of setting rent for social housing. Social housing rents are currently set at 80% of what they would be in the private market. Deputy Raluca Kovacs said this made social rent too expensive and it was causing rental stress. She proposed a new policy with lower, more predictable rents to help reduce tenants' reliance on benefit payments. Housing Minister Sam Mézec said: "Reviewing the social housing rents system was in our manifestos and it is an important thing to consider."
# Hot topic International, Public and community housing.UK tenants issued key advice on what to do if your rent is going up
Phoebe Jobling Manchester Evening News (No paywall)Tenants in the UK have been issued key advice on what to do if your landlord is putting your rent up. The average monthly private rent in the UK has increased by 7.7 percent over the last year, new data from from the Office for National Statistics has revealed. The average cost to rent a home in the UK was £1,332 per month in March 2025, which is £96 higher than 12 months previously.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/property/uk-tenants…
# Hot topic International, Rent.City of Moreton Bay throws homeless people's tents into garbage trucks
Kenji Sato ABC (No paywall)The City of Moreton Bay council has begun throwing away rough sleepers' tents and other possessions as it cracks down on "illegal" homeless campers. On Wednesday morning council rangers and police officers began dismantling tents at Eddie Hyland Park, north of Brisbane. Homeless woman Carol Ross said rangers gave her one hour to remove her personal belongings from her tent before they loaded it onto the back of a garbage truck.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-10/city-of-moreton-bay-throw…
# Must read Australia, .Poor living conditions for renters to influence millions of votes
ABC (No paywall)Poor living conditions for renters will be influencing the vote of millions this election... with many renters angry about costs increasing, while standards slip. With record-low vacancy rates, many renters say they're reluctant to complain about maintenance issues or poor conditions in fear of losing their lease. They're calling for a policy overhaul to take some of the pressure off.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/am/rental-rights/105172956
# TUNSW in the media, Audio Australia, Rent.Victorian housing program helping young people at risk of homelessness
Shannon Schubert ABC (No paywall)Having his own home has given Joel Eyton a sense of calm he thought he would never experience. The 21-year-old Bendigo resident can cook whenever he wants to and decorate in his own style. But perhaps most important of all is the sense of security vital for his mental health. "It feels foreign … the consistency of a regular life where I don't have to worry about food and a place to sleep," Mr Eyton said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-11/vulnerable-young-people-r…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent.Housing affordability is a problem for Australian foreign policy
Hugh Piper Lowy Institute (No paywall)If, like me, you’ve had the (mis)fortune of attending a few too many dinner parties in Sydney, then you’d be well-acquainted with Australians’ preoccupation with home ownership. Older Australians are obsessed with accumulating investments. Younger Australians, meanwhile, are fixated on simply entering the property market in the first place. It’s a profound source of intergenerational inequality in Australia – one that successive governments have found too politically inconvenient to address meaningfully. But one dimension of the problem remains under-examined: what it means for Australia’s influence in the world.
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/housing-affordabil…
# Hot topic Australia, .https://theconversation.com/election-diary-liberal-and-labor-launches-focus-on-housing-but-who-thinks-either-side-can-fix-that-crisis-any-time-soon-254206?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20April%2014%202025%20-%20333
Michelle Grattan The Conversation (No paywall)If anyone had any doubts before, Sunday’s Liberal and Labor launches highlighted that this election is an auction for votes, in particular those of the under 40s and people in the outer suburbs. Amid the usual launch hoopla – the Liberals choosing western Sydney and Labor returning to Perth – both parties announced major fresh housing initiatives. They were making a deep bow to what’s a central issue for younger Australians who still aspire to the so-called “Australian dream” but can’t see themselves affording it.
https://theconversation.com/election-diary-liberal-and-labor-lau…
# Hot topic Australia, .