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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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
This is no time to delay raising minimum home energy ratings
Rob McLeod The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Action to make Australia’s housing resilient in the face of climate change has never been more urgent – and the post-pandemic recovery should be the time to do it.
https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/this-…
# Hot topic Australia, Utilities water energy internet, Climate change.Australians flee cities for refuge in regional retreats
Shane Wright and Jennifer Duke The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Australians are retreating to regional parts of the country and shunning the nation's two largest cities as they wait out the end of the coronavirus recession. New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals Melburnians and Sydneysiders in particular were seeking refuge in regional retreats while others bunkered down even before the pandemic interrupted removalist vans across the continent.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australians-flee-cities-…
# Australia, Regional NSW.One in eight UK renters unable to meet housing costs in full, says report
Richard Partington The Guardian (No paywall)United Kingdom: Almost one in eight private renters are unable to meet their housing costs in full, according to a report warning that urgent steps are needed to protect households during the second wave of Covid-19. The Resolution Foundation said private and social renters are bearing the brunt of redundancies during the Covid recession and are more likely to have fallen behind with their housing costs than mortgagers.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/oct/31/uk-renters-housing…
# Hot topic International, Coronavirus COVID-19.Government fails to commit to eviction ban extension
Lucie Heath Inside Housing (Paywall)United Kingdom: The government has failed to commit to reinstating the eviction ban that was in place in England and Wales over the first six months of the COVID-19 crisis, as both countries experience a second national lockdown.
https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/government-fails-to-commit-…
# Hot topic International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Eviction.Sons inherited Sydney house, land under squatter's rights, court rules
Michaela Whitbourn The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)A NSW court has ruled that a woman who assumed control over a Sydney house and a vacant block near Nowra after their owner died became entitled to the properties under squatter's rights and left them to her sons.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/sons-inherited-sydney-house-land…
# Legal significance NSW, Squatting, Regional NSW.$1 billion per year (or less) could halve rental housing stress
Rachel Ong ViforJ, Chris Martin, Hal Pawson and Ranjodh B Singh The Conversation (No paywall)COVID has shown us what’s possible when it comes to alleviating poverty. For six months JobSeeker payments were doubled and then maintained at a level 50% above normal. When the bonus finishes at year end it is likely to be permanently increased for the first time in almost 30 years. Commonwealth rent assistance could do with the same sort of attention.
https://theconversation.com/1-billion-per-year-or-less-could-hal…
# Must read Australia, Welfare, Affordable housing.Improved targeted rent assistance needed for low-income tenants
Jan Arreza The Fifth Estate (No paywall)Commonwealth Rent Assistance (CRA) is not reaching many of those who need it, with about 18 per cent of low-income private rental households in housing stress, yet not receiving the income supplement, a new AHURI report reveals.
https://www.thefifthestate.com.au/innovation/residential-2/impro…
# Must read Australia, Welfare.Wins and ongoing battles in the midst of the crisis
Tenants' Union of NSW (No paywall)Our latest Tenant News e-magazine. Contents includes: COVID renting update, pets in strata, Tribunal advice, social housing, religious freedoms, and future visions of renting.
https://us3.campaign-archive.com/?u=29c79d2825cb376b3f0b06385&id…
# Must read NSW, Coronavirus COVID-19, Strata, Tribunal NCAT, Public and community housing, Discrimination, Renting culture.