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
Liberal MP’s housing campaign a ‘bigger problem’ than super guarantee for Labor
Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The chairman of the influential House economics committee, Tim Wilson, is requesting superannuation funds disclose the value of their real estate assets and proportion of members who are home owners as he steps up his campaign to let first-time buyers tap into retirement savings for a deposit.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/liberal-mp-s-housing-cam…
# Australia, Home ownership.Apartment pets saga takes new twist as tribunal rules Camperdown unit dwellers can keep cats but not dogs
Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson Domain (Paywall)The campaign to make pets permitted in all apartment blocks has run off the tracks with a bizarre new twist in the seemingly endless saga. TV presenter and Railway Adventures tour company owner Scott McGregor has just lost his bid to have his miniature fox terrier Jimmy live in his Camperdown apartment after a tribunal ruled that its no-dogs bylaw is acceptable. That’s even though last year the NSW Court of Appeal decreed that a no-pets bylaw was “harsh, oppressive and unconscionable” and therefore invalid.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/apartment-pets-saga-takes-new-twi…
# Hot topic NSW, Strata, Pets.Pandemic property boom: will it get too hot to handle?
Matt Wade The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Here we go again - it’s spring, interest rates are low and housing markets are running hot. Property tropes missing from the city’s narrative for years are back in the news. Dumps are selling for squillions; big crowds are showing up at auctions; reserves are being smashed.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/pandemic-property-bo…
# Australia, Coronavirus COVID-19, Home ownership, Housing market.Social housing tenant could be evicted today over $260 in arrears
Mario Christodoulou and Scott Mitchell ABC (No paywall)Social housing tenants say they have been getting a wave of strongly-worded termination notices in inner-city Sydney. Peter "Pierre" Gawronski, better known as "the bird man" around his Surry Hills neighbourhood, was told in a letter from the NSW Department of Communities and Justice that he was $262.22 in arrears.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-06/bird-man-eviction-notice-…
# NSW, Eviction, Public and community housing.‘Poo power’ to heat 2,000 homes in London borough
Dominic Brady Inside Housing (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... More than 2,000 homes in Kingston could be heated using excess heat energy from the sewage treatment process, the London council has said. ... The scheme, which is the first of its kind in England, is part of a carbon-cutting partnership between Kingston Council and Thames Water. The council is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2038, while Thames Water is looking to achieve net zero carbon by 2030.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/poo-power-to-heat-2000…
# International, Utilities electricity water gas, Housing market.Sadiq Khan sets official target for half of all new London homes to be ‘genuinely affordable’
James Wilmore (Paywall)From the United Kingdom ... Sadiq Khan has formally set a “strategic” target for half of all new homes built in the capital to be “genuinely affordable” in his long-awaited London Plan. (Social Housing)
https://www.socialhousing.co.uk/news/sadiq-khan-sets-official-ta…
# International, Affordable housing.What if social housing enacted a culture of care and compassion?
Claire Bowles The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Long-awaited and long-needed, the announcement by the Andrews government in late 2020 that Victoria will build over 12,000 units of social housing worth an estimated $5.3 billion, cannot come soon enough. ... However, many have been suffering the plight of insecure housing and housing affordability well before the pandemic arrived. In fact, 57 per cent of lower-income households who rent privately are in rental distress, while 50,000 Australians are in urgent need of social housing, with another 116,000 experiencing homelessness as of the last census.
https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/what-…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Housing market.50% of Australians are prepared to pay more tax to improve aged care workers’ pay, survey shows
Rachel Milte and Julie Ratcliffe The Conversation (No paywall)The Morrison government has been facing difficult questions regarding which of the 148 recommendations it will adopt. It also needs to grapple with how to pay for the much-needed changes. On this question, the royal commissioners disagree. Commissioner Lynelle Briggs calls for a levy of 1% of taxable personal income, while commissioner Tony Pagone recommends the Productivity Commission investigate an aged care levy.
https://theconversation.com/50-of-australians-are-prepared-to-pa…
# Hot topic Australia, Federal Government, Older people.