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
If you think decent homes for all is an impossible dream, take a look at Vienna
Kenan Malik The Guardian (No paywall)Why shouldn’t working-class people own their own homes? It’s a rhetorical question that has provided the justification for the transformation of housing policy over the past half century in the wake of Margaret Thatcher’s “property-owning” revolution in the 1980s. “I want Labour to be the party of home ownership,” as Keir Starmer put it last week.
There is, of course, no reason that working-class people should not own their home, any more than they should not drive a Mercedes or holiday in the Maldives. The trappings of wealth should not be confined to the middle class.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/07/vision-of-…
# Hot topic International, Affordable housing, Housing affordability, International.Bristol fights to ban bidding wars
Staff Acorn (UK) (No paywall)ACORN’s Bristol branch has been making waves with the ‘Ban the Bids’ campaign.
‘Bidding wars’ have become more commonplace in the city in recent years, as some landlords and letting agents encourage prospective renters to bid against each other over the advertised price. This is artificially inflating prices, forcing people to move away from their communities and exacerbating the housing crisis.
Since the campaign launched in December, 22 letting agents have signed our pledge to end the practice of ‘bidding wars.’
Renters Reform Bill set to arrive next week, Michael Gove confirms
Liam Geraghty The Big Issue (UK) (No paywall)The long-awaited legislation to improve renters’ rights is set to finally be published next week – more than four years after Tories promised to axe no-fault evictions.
The government will publish the long-awaited Renters Reform Bill next week, more than four years after the Tories first promised to scrap no-fault evictions.
The rent reforms were first unveiled in June 2023 after then-prime minister Theresa May first said the Tories would remove section 21 evictions in April 2019. The legislation promises to improve renters’ rights by improving the conditions of private rental homes, giving tenants more power to keep pets and to contest unfair rent increases.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/renters-reform-bill-set-to…
# Hot topic, New policy announcement International, Eviction, Campaigns and law reform, International.Single family homes for rent are getting more expensive. Here's where prices are going up
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy USA Today (No paywall)Even as the overall U.S. rental market cools, single-family rentals are bucking the trend, a new report shows.
While the yearly rent growth turned negative in March after a period of double-digit price growth in 2021 and 2022, single-family monthly rental rates increased from $2,212 to $2,330 at the close of the first quarter of 2023 (last week of March) compared with the same period in 2022, a 5.3% increase. That was despite a 75% increase in inventory year-over-year, from 36, 688 to 64, 210, according to a HouseCanary analysis shared exclusively with USA TODAY.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/05/07/single-family-ho…
# Hot topic, Research alert International, Rent, Families, International.Illegal buildings flourish in Bhiwandi with little safety
Sajana Nambiar Hindustan Times (No paywall)The expert claimed that builders mount more floors above the structure. “There is no check on the structure’s load-bearing capacity. Most of these godowns, and warehouses are already overloaded. The upper floors are simply built and given on rent for cheap rates.
Two days after the horrific building collapse in Bhiwandi that killed eight people, experts claim that several illegal constructions have mushroomed in Bhiwandi’s rural areas even after the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) was appointed as the planning authority.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/mumbai-news/illegal-constr…
# Hot topic International, International, Planning and development, Work, employment.The climate crisis is making it harder for councils to protect rough sleepers from extreme weather
Liam Gerhaghty The Big Issue (UK) (No paywall)Councils in London have warned the climate crisis is making it more difficult to find the resources to protect rough sleepers from extreme weather.
The Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (Swep) sees local authorities work with frontline homelessness teams to bring homeless people off the streets when weather conditions pose a threat to life.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/environment/the-climate-crisis-is-…
# Must read, Hot topic International, Climate change, Homelessness, International.Eviction Fallout Follows Ex-Newhallville Family
Laura Glesby New Haven Independent (No paywall)Two years after an eviction lawsuit left Jacqueline Frett and her four kids with no place to live in New Haven, the 35-year-old former Harding Place tenant and her family are now trying to make their way back to the city they once called home.
They haven’t had a home of their own since 2021, when an affiliate of Mandy Management kicked them out for not paying rent on time.
Now crashing in a friend’s living room in the Bronx, Frett wants to come back to New Haven — where her kids attended school for years, where she felt safe and separate from a life she wanted to leave behind.
https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/how_a_family_survive…
# Hot topic International, Eviction, Families, International.Tenants tackle rent hikes in Toronto’s High Park
Staff Spring Magazine (Canada) (No paywall)A property rental company that boasted record revenue growth during the last three years of pandemic intends to increase rent for more than 500 High Park tenants. Residents received notice from their landlord Great West Life Realty Advisors (GWLRA) to increase their rent by as much as 14 per cent. However, the tenants stood ground to stop “drastic, unaffordable” rates.
Ben Scott, a single parent living in a two-bedroom apartment with his son, received N2 letter in October 2022 with an 11.6 per cent increase. It meant an additional expense of $300 a year. “I had to seriously think about changing where I live,” he said in an interview with CBC News. “I happened to get another job that afforded me a little bit more, but the gain that I get from that job is essentially just going to cover my rent.”
https://springmag.ca/tenants-tackle-rent-hikes-in-torontos-high-…
# Hot topic International, Rent, Housing affordability, International.