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
Federal budget 2023: $4 billion to cover wage increases for vital services in budget
Adrian Rollins Canberra Times (Paywall)The federal government will pump an extra $4 billion to help pay the wages bill for government and community organisations providing critical services to the elderly, veterans, survivors of family violence and other vulnerable groups.
The budget is expected to include a measure providing extra funds to support the indexation of wages for workers on programs including Commonwealth Home Support, Veteran Home Services, community legal centres, First Nations healthcare, social housing and homelessness services, programs to reduce violence against women and chronic disease support.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8185553/services-for-vuln…
# Hot topic Australia, Campaigns and law reform, Federal Government, Housing affordability.No silver bullet for renters: housing minister
Rachel Clun WA Today (No paywall)Housing Minister Julie Collins has admitted the federal government has “no silver bullet” to deal with soaring rents and widespread housing shortages as tenants’ rights groups demand all states and territories end no-fault evictions.
But the real estate industry hit back, saying calls to control rent rises and lock in tenancies would force landlords out of the market and do nothing to address supply shortages.
https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/federal/no-silver-bullet-for…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.Michael Pascoe: Stop growing the landlord class and focus on ‘taboo’ public housing
Michael Pascoe The New Daily (No paywall)Funny thing about the various state and federal governments responses to the housing crisis: They don’t mention “public housing”.
“Affordable housing” is all the rage, “social housing” certainly gets a look in and “build-to-rent” is popular, but “public housing” – housing owned directly by government – seems to have been culture-cancelled other than in the context of Anthony Albanese’s “log cabin” story.
Labor governments are giving a good impression of having adopted the discredited Jason Falinski aversion to “houso”, despite it still being the main source of shelter for people priced out of private property.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2023/05/06/michael-pascoe-pub…
# Must read, Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Federal Government.Rent Control Explained: What It Is, Why Aussies Want It, and What You Can Do
Joel Burrows The Latch (No paywall)Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Renters are actually human beings. They have thoughts and feelings. They can sing in the shower and quote Blade Runner in the rain. What’s more, these folks don’t like being exploited.
Yet, as it stands, Australian renters are buckwild easy to milk. This is because there’s currently no cap on how much their rent can be raised by. If a landlord gives the right amount of notice, they can raise the price of one’s unit by $500 per week.
Now, if it’s not self-evident, this practice is bad. It turns everyday people into poverty-stricken messes. If your rent shoots up, you can go from feeding your family to stealing carrots at a self-service machine.
Why the rental crisis could soon become much worse for millions of Aussies
Peter Vincent Daily Mail (Australia) (No paywall)Australia's rental crisis could be about to get worse with the number of new properties being built unexpectedly crashing in every state or territory except one.
The first quarter of 2023 was the weakest for building approvals since 2012 across the nation, a result many experts didn't see coming.
In NSW total building approvals for March plummeted by 34.1 per cent compared to a year ago, while in Victoria they tumbled 26.6 per cent.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12061783/Australian-ren…
# Hot topic Australia, Rent, Housing affordability, Housing market.If you think decent homes for all is an impossible dream, take a look at Vienna
Kenan Malik The Guardian (No paywall)Why shouldn’t working-class people own their own homes? It’s a rhetorical question that has provided the justification for the transformation of housing policy over the past half century in the wake of Margaret Thatcher’s “property-owning” revolution in the 1980s. “I want Labour to be the party of home ownership,” as Keir Starmer put it last week.
There is, of course, no reason that working-class people should not own their home, any more than they should not drive a Mercedes or holiday in the Maldives. The trappings of wealth should not be confined to the middle class.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/07/vision-of-…
# Hot topic International, Affordable housing, Housing affordability, International.Bristol fights to ban bidding wars
Staff Acorn (UK) (No paywall)ACORN’s Bristol branch has been making waves with the ‘Ban the Bids’ campaign.
‘Bidding wars’ have become more commonplace in the city in recent years, as some landlords and letting agents encourage prospective renters to bid against each other over the advertised price. This is artificially inflating prices, forcing people to move away from their communities and exacerbating the housing crisis.
Since the campaign launched in December, 22 letting agents have signed our pledge to end the practice of ‘bidding wars.’
Renters Reform Bill set to arrive next week, Michael Gove confirms
Liam Geraghty The Big Issue (UK) (No paywall)The long-awaited legislation to improve renters’ rights is set to finally be published next week – more than four years after Tories promised to axe no-fault evictions.
The government will publish the long-awaited Renters Reform Bill next week, more than four years after the Tories first promised to scrap no-fault evictions.
The rent reforms were first unveiled in June 2023 after then-prime minister Theresa May first said the Tories would remove section 21 evictions in April 2019. The legislation promises to improve renters’ rights by improving the conditions of private rental homes, giving tenants more power to keep pets and to contest unfair rent increases.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/renters-reform-bill-set-to…
# Hot topic, New policy announcement International, Eviction, Campaigns and law reform, International.