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.
Our main email newsletter, Tenant News is sent once every two months. You can subscribe or update your subscription preferences for any of our email newsletters here.
See notes about the Digest and a list of other contributors here. Many thanks to those contributors for sharing links with us.
We love sharing the news and hope you find it informative! We're very happy to deliver it for free, but if you find it valuable, can you help cover the extra costs incurred by making a donation?
Archive
The benefits of collaboration between the Church and housing associations
Charlie Arbuthnot and Matthew Corbett Inside Housing (Paywall)Housing associations and churches act as anchor organisations in many of the deprived communities they serve. So why don’t we do more together? That was the question posed by L&Q and the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Commission on Housing, Church and Community, when they met. The quick answer was ... we could do a whole lot more. Read on ...
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/insight/insight/the-benefits-of-…
# International, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Housing market, Human rights.Church of England appoints first bishop for housing
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)In the Unuited Kingdom, Bishop of Loughborough. Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani will take up the new Bishop of Housing role, which will see her lead the church’s efforts in tackling housing inequality. ... Her appointment comes ahead of next month’s publication of the findings of a two-year commission, set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, examining the role of the church in tackling housing inequality. ... One aim will be to ensure the Church of England uses its own land well to help resolve the housing crisis wherever possible.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/church-of-england-appo…
# Must read International, Affordable housing, Housing market, Human rights.'Quentin Tarantino moment' for men who intimidated Surry Hills tenant
Laura Chung The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A Sydney landlord who intimidated and assaulted a tenant after he fell behind in his rent joked the attack was a "Quentin Tarantino" moment that he would laugh about for years to come. Mario Venneri, 57, on Thursday pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre Local Court to intimidation and assault charges over the incident, which began after his tenant Brice Gouillou fell behind in his rent payments.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/quentin-tarantino-moment-for…
# NSW, Rent, Coronavirus COVID-19, Landlords and agents.Australian housing market to experience 'up crash' on back of homebuilder mini-boom – investment bank
Ben Butler The Guardian (No paywall)Australia’s housing market is set for an “up crash” as the government’s homebuilder subsidy scheme prompts a spike in construction that will rapidly fall away, investment bank UBS says. George Tharenou, the chief economist at UBS in Australia, said ... house prices are likely to rise by 5-10%, but there was now a chance they would soar more than 10%, “particularly given the planned repeal of responsible lending” rules.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jan/21/australia…
# Australia, Federal Government, Housing market.Budget to give extra boost to public housing as report shows decline
Ian Bushnell (No paywall)The number of public housing properties in the ACT has declined during the past decade despite a growing population and a property boom that has forced more people into an increasingly unaffordable rental market with the highest rents in the country. ... Social welfare advocates estimate the ACT now has a shortfall of 3000 public and social housing properties, and 1600 homeless people, although the ACT Government estimates there are only about 50 who are sleeping rough. (RiotAct)
https://the-riotact.com/budget-to-give-extra-boost-to-public-hou…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Homelessness.Labour government: Prioritising the interests of middle-class landlords over struggling working class tenants
John Minto (No paywall)From New Zealand ... Yesterday’s government announcement on new state housing is a pathetic response to the biggest housing crisis in New Zealand since the 1940s. At a time when the country needs an industrial-scale state house building programme, the government building just 1,600 new state houses per year – the same number built by National in its last term. ... The last time we had a housing crisis this big – in the late 1940s – a Labour government built 10,000 state houses per year. 75 years later Labour can only manage 1,600 per year. Pitiful. (The Daily Blog)
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/01/22/labour-government-prioriti…
# New policy announcement International, Public and community housing.There is a vaccine against homelessness: It's called affordable social housing
Juha Kaakinen (No paywall)When the current COVID-19 epidemic really hit the world and was recognized as a pandemic, most countries sooner or later launched a simple advice or order of prevention: Stay at home. A simple and effective measure of precaution for those lucky ones who have a home, but not for the people experiencing homelessness. (OECD Forum Network)
https://www.oecd-forum.org/posts/there-is-a-vaccine-against-home…
# International, Public and community housing, Homelessness, Housing market.The People the Suburbs Were Built for Are Gone
Shayla Love (No paywall)From the United States ... But the suburbs, in the sense of the idyllic American pastoral Trump and Carson referenced, have been changing for some time—not necessarily the physical homes, stores, roads, and offices that populate them, but the people who live there, along with their needs and desires. Read on ... (Vice)
https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3gx5b/the-people-the-suburbs-we…
# International, Housing market, Planning and development.