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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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See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.

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Archive

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Key topics

Grenfell Inquiry ‘able to conclude every death was avoidable’ as its lawyer slams ongoing ‘merry-go-round’ of buck-passing

Peter Apps
Inside Housing (Paywall)

The Grenfell Tower Inquiry panel is “able to conclude with confidence” that “each and every one” of the deaths in the fire was “avoidable”, its counsel has said in closing remarks.
Richard Millett KC, counsel to the inquiry, today gave a closing statement that concluded 400 days of oral evidence across two phases lasting around four-and-a-half years.
“From all of the evidence that you have heard in phase two, you are able to distill a single overall conclusion: that there was nothing unknown or not reasonably knowable, which caused or contributed to the fire and its consequences,” he said.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/grenfell-inquiry-able-…

# International, Public and community housing.
 

Regional housing crunch causes legal spike

Luke Costin
AAP (No paywall)

Housing and homelessness problems in regional NSW have reached a crisis point, with legal advocates fielding a surge in calls for assistance.
Legal Aid NSW says services provided to clients at risk of losing their homes have increased by 53 per cent in the past year.
Calls for help have mostly come from regional areas, where the combination of tree-changers and widespread flooding has gutted the affordable rental market.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/urban-planning/regional-housing…

# NSW, Eviction, Housing affordability.
 

Is social housing really a serious investment?

Aleks Vickovich
Financial Review (Paywall)

In urging executives in the $3.3 trillion superannuation sector to support social and community housing projects, former prime minister Paul Keating invoked the powerful imagery of homeless kids.
“This is a society that can’t house its own children,” the former Labor leader told the Superannuation Lending Roundtable, hosted by The Australian Financial Review and packaging multinational Visy earlier this year. “If super funds just think they can go buy tech stocks in America and highways in Italy, they’re gonna run into trouble.”

https://www.afr.com/wealth/personal-finance/is-social-housing-re…

# NSW, Public and community housing, Affordable housing.
 

Tenants Union urges government to make it easier for pet owners to find a rental

Allison Hore
The Daily Liberal (Paywall)

Local tenants advocates are calling on the NSW Government to listen to the overwhelming support for a proposal to change the laws to make it easier for renters to keep pets in their home.

https://www.dailyliberal.com.au/story/7969725/like-harbouring-a-…

# NSW, Pets, Tenants Advice and Advocacy Services.
 

Aussies facing conditions similar to auctions due to rent bidding

Eli Green
news.com.au (No paywall)

The practice of “rent bidding” is forcing Aussies to fork out more for properties than they should be for fear of being left homeless as supply dries up.
There are concerns Australian renters are being lured into paying more for overvalued properties through the practice of “rent bidding”.
According to Tenants Union chief executive Leo Patterson Ross, rent bidding is similar to “creating an auction” where tenants offer more than the advertised price or to pay a large portion of the rent in advance to secure a property.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/aussies-facing-condi…

# TUNSW in the media NSW, Rent.
 

New bid to help renters save thousands of dollars on crippling payments

AAP
7 News (No paywall)

‘Anyone who rents in Sydney knows just how anxious and challenging a process it can be to find suitable accommodation.’
Almost a million renters in NSW will be able to transfer their bonds from one property to the next and cannot be kicked out of their homes without reasonable grounds given, Labor has pledged.
The promise ahead of the 2023 election comes amid skyrocketing rents in Sydney and rising accommodation costs in regional areas, with NSW’s median rent increasing from $386 to $420 a week between 2016 and 2021.

https://7news.com.au/business/property/sick-of-saving-for-a-bond…

# TUNSW in the media NSW, Bond.
 

Punishment or reward? The housing remark that revived Sydney’s east-west divide

Michael Koziol
The Sydney Morning Herald (No paywall)

When Liberal candidate for Vaucluse Kellie Sloane told reporters in Double Bay she didn’t want her seat “punished” with more housing, her remarks last weekend were aimed at a specific audience: development-wary voters in the wealthy eastern suburbs.
They were heard loud and clear, however, dozens of kilometres away in western Sydney, where people at the coalface of the city’s growth have long been frustrated by the “not in my backyard” attitude espoused by some in the east.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/punishment-or-reward-the-hou…

# NSW, State Government, Sydney.
 

Your City with Urthboy and Dallas Woods

RN breakfast
ABC (No paywall)

What feeds our emotional connection to a place?
That's the sentiment explored by Hip hop artists Urthboy and Dallas Woods, who have combined forces on a new single that explores the binding nature of geographical boundaries.

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/your-cit…

# Audio NSW, History, Home, Race and ethnicity.
 

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