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
Vienna has been declared a renters’ utopia – here’s why
Justin Kadi The Guardian (No paywall)When it comes to best-practice examples in the housing debate, Vienna is a common reference. Indeed, the Austrian capital features prominently in narratives about successful housing policies. An article in the Observer concluded that Vienna shows “decent homes for all” is not an impossible dream. And the New York Times even declared it “a renters’ utopia”. A considerable part of the attraction of Vienna relates to its large social-housing stock. It accounts for some 43% of the roughly 1m housing units in the city. About half of it is municipally owned council housing.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/10/housing-cr…
# International, Public and community housing.BLOG: 5 REASONS WHY THE UK SHOULD IMPLEMENT RENT CONTROLS
Homes for Us (No paywall)It’s a widely accepted fact that the private rented sector is in crisis — with a key driver being the affordability of housing. There are 4.6 million households renting privately in England and a significant amount of them are being forced to pay over a third of their income on rent. These excessive rents mean families are often being priced out of their homes, left unable to afford other essentials like food and clothing, or forced to accept poor quality and even dangerous conditions. In the long term, we need more council homes to ensure everyone has a safe, secure and accessible place to lay the foundations of a good life.
https://homesforus.org.uk/latest-news/5-reasons-why-the-uk-shoul…
# Hot topic International, Rent.‘They lump us all together’: van-dwellers and homeowners clash over life near Bristol Downs
Tom Wall The Guardian (No paywall)Lee James is cowering in the rusting Mercedes Sprinter van he calls home. He is worried sick by the growing campaign to evict van-dwellers like him from historic parkland in the wealthy north-west of Bristol. “I’m not in the greatest headspace today … I wouldn’t have anywhere to go [if I was evicted] … this is my home,” he said in the gloomy interior. “I just wish there was more kindness.” Last week, residents from the neighbourhoods surrounding the Bristol Downs, where house prices and average incomes are among the highest in the city, lobbied the Green-led council to remove the 60 to 100 vans and caravans in the park.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/15/van-dwellers-hom…
# Must read International, Discrimination, Rent.After a hopeful start, Labor’s affordable housing fund is proving problematic
Katrina Raynor The Conversation (No paywall)When the Albanese government announced the A$10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund in 2023, the news reverberated through the housing sector. A new funding facility to help build 30,000 social and affordable rental homes in five years. Given we only increased Australia’s social housing stock by 24,000 dwellings in the decade to 2024, this represents a significant uptick. The future fund is part of the National Housing Accord’s overall commitment to build 1.2 million new homes by the end of the decade. This target is now in serious doubt following advice from Treasury.
https://theconversation.com/after-a-hopeful-start-labors-afforda…
# Australia, .£300 rent hike for Welsh Streets tenants scrapped
Lynette Horsburgh BBC (No paywall)People living in a famous set of Liverpool streets have been spared a rent hike that would have cost them an extra £300 a month. Tenants in The Welsh Streets, where Beatle Ringo Starr was born, have agreed a deal with landlord Placefirst. Up to 300 residents were set to be affected by the change, but the rent rise will now be capped at £60. Placefirst said it was "pleased" to reach a resolution that "represents a balanced and sustainable outcome for all parties". The Welsh Streets are named after the Welsh workers who built them and lived there in the late 19th Century.
# International, .I was on New York’s rent board. Zohran Mamdani’s ideas aren’t pie in the sky
Leah Goodridge The Guardian (No paywall)During the New York City mayoral primary campaign, Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for a citywide rent freeze became a contentious topic. The Democratic nominee says to achieve a cap on annual rent increases for the city’s 1m rent-stabilized apartments, he would appoint members to the city’s rent guidelines board who support it. Critics decry a rent freeze as a pie-in-the-sky, unrealistic proposal. I served as a rent guidelines board member for nearly four years, appointed by then mayor Bill de Blasio in 2018. And it’s clear this controversy isn’t just about rent freezes – there’s a larger agenda to deregulate rent-stabilized housing, under which rent ceilings prevent landlords from raising the rent too high and tenants must be offered renewal leases (unless the landlord shows legal reason not to).
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jul/14/new-york-r…
# Hot topic International, Rent.Landlords offering mental health check-ins aren’t going to solve the rental crisis
Katie Rosseinsky The Independent (No paywall)Just when you thought that the rental market couldn’t get more dystopian, it manages to outdo itself. The latest bleak new development for private renters? Landlords attempting to lure in prospective tenants with the promise of… mental health check-ins! The irony is painful, like when a tyrannical boss returns from an HR training session and starts telling their colleagues that it’s “OK not to be OK” (but, ideally, not on work hours, please).
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/renting-mental-health-l…
# Must read International, Rent.Evicted family struggling with unfit flat
BBC (No paywall)A woman who has been evicted from her home in Ealing where she was living with her disabled daughter and son says she is now struggling in temporary "inaccessible" accommodation. Kinga says the one-bed flat on the first floor of a house in Southall is not wheelchair accessible for her six-year-old daughter, Victoria, who has Phelan McDermid Syndrome which means she has difficulty walking and a developmental delay. It also means they now have a 90 minute journey on two buses to get to Victoria's school.
# International, Eviction.