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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
‘Unnecessary delay’ to rent reforms puts tenants in Wales at risk, says electrical safety charity
Stephen Delahunty Inside Housing (Paywall)A Welsh consumer protection charity has warned that the delay to implementing the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 leaves private renters at risk from dangerous electrics until at least the end of the year. The act, which the government previously branded the “biggest change to housing law in Wales for decades”, has been delayed until 1 December, in part because social landlords requested it. But Electrical Safety First said the delay places tenants in “unnecessary risk” and has urged the Welsh government to press ahead with the act’s implementation. It has taken the Welsh government six years to implement the act, which was passed in 2016. It includes a number of significant changes to rental law in Wales, such as a strengthened duty on landlords to ensure the properties they rent out are fit for human habitation. This will require the installation of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and regular electrical safety testing. The act also increases the notice period that landlords must give when issuing ‘no-fault’ evictions from two to six months.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/unnecessary-delay-to-r…
# International, Public and community housing, Repairs, Landlords and agents, Minimum habitability standards, No-grounds evictions.Owners battle illegal lets and crippling contracts
Jimmy Thomson (No paywall)Queensland apartment owners are ramping up their battles to regain control over their homes on two fronts. One aspect is the fundamentally immoral (but entirely legal) practise of developers selling management rights contracts to caretakers for up to 25 years – meaning owners have no choice in who manages their buildings, or to whom those contracts can be later sold on. The other is state and local governments’ repeated and systemic failure to enforce their own planning regulations which were intended to offer owners a choice between living in blocks with holiday lets and those without. (Flat Chat)
# Australia, Strata, Short-term holiday letting.Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games athletes' village legacy could alleviate Queensland's housing shortage, architects say
Celeste Macintosh ABC (No paywall)A tangible legacy of the Sydney Olympic Games can be found overlooking an idyllic Queensland beach — and some say it should provide inspiration for Brisbane 2032 organisers. Twelve two-bedroom, one-bath, 57-square-metre spa-equipped villas from Sydney 2000 have been a getaway for visitors to Philippa Thompson's caravan park at Rainbow Beach, north of the Sunshine Coast. Ms Thompson said after accommodating thousands of holiday-makers over 21 years, they remain in good working condition and have only needed occasional updating and additions, and work on wear and tear. The pre-fabricated buildings were sent to various locations across the country and the athlete's village at Newington in Sydney was converted into apartments. ... Ten years out from hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games, architects say the village that will house most of the more than 23,000 athletes and officials coming in 2032 could leave a similar legacy in Queensland.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-24/qld-brisbane-olympics-vil…
# Australia, Affordable housing, Housing market.Crowdfunding reprieve for Earlwood pensioners facing strata bankruptcy
Caitlin Fitzimmons The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)An elderly couple in Sydney’s inner west has been potentially saved from bankruptcy and homelessness over a strata debt by a crowdfunding campaign that raised nearly $63,000.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/crowdfunding-re…
# NSW, Strata, Older people.How a great English city sold itself to Abu Dhabi’s elite – and not even for a good price
Aditya Chakrabortty The Guardian (No paywall)Manchester’s Labour council let Sheikh Mansour buy up acres of public land for seemingly a fraction of its worth – how was this allowed? ... Yet [Manchester's] success has come at a high price for the little people who just happen to live in the city. Not only have the assets they owned been sold cheap, they have got little back. The nine developed sites have no social or affordable housing,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/21/great-engl…
# International, Housing market, Local Government.MP found corrupt for trying to influence councillors
Judy Skatssoon (No paywall)The ICAC has found NSW MP John Sidoti engaged in serious corrupt conduct by trying to influence City of Canada Bay councillors to act in ways that would benefit his family’s property interests. (Government News)
https://www.governmentnews.com.au/mp-found-corrupt-for-trying-to…
# NSW, Landlords and agents, Local Government.Former public relations executive tells NSW inquiry that homelessness ‘has no discrimination’
The Guardian (No paywall)A former Sydney public relations executive who became homeless in her 60s says publicising her story led to a cascade of contact from regular, suburban women who had also fallen on hard times. Glen-Marie Frost, 73, previously lived in a mansion in Bellevue Hill in Sydney’s east, managed an international PR company and was head of communications and community relations for the Sydney Olympics. ... She was married to a wealthy property executive but her husband plunged their family into debt in the 1980s without her knowledge, leaving her without assets after their divorce. She then became unwell, had to close her executive coaching business and was homeless at 64. Frost told a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into homelessness she now lives in public housing in inner Sydney’s Woolloomooloo and is on a pension. ... “Becoming homeless … has no discrimination,” Frost told the inquiry on Monday. And, you will find the opening statement from Leo Patterson Ross, CEO of the Tenants' Union of NSW that highlights some of the key recommendations that he made to the same New South Wales parliamentary inquiry. Go to: [https://www.tenants.org.au/news/homelessness-among-older-people-aged-55-nsw-tunsw-provides-evidence-nsw-parliament].
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jul/18/former-public-re…
# NSW, Homelessness, State Government.The UK just hit 40℃ for the first time. It’s a stark reminder of the deadly heat awaiting Australia
Andrew King The Conversation (No paywall)A severe heatwave in Western Europe is shattering temperature records – including in the United Kingdom, where temperatures exceeded 40℃ on Tuesday for the first time on record. ... Summer heat may be far from people’s minds here in Australia. But Europe’s ordeal is yet another sign that changes in Earth’s climate have already reached dangerous levels. If the UK can reach 40℃, Australia must brace for even deadlier temperatures.
https://theconversation.com/the-uk-just-hit-40-for-the-first-tim…
# Australia, Climate change, International.