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 government promising a 'renters' bill of rights' in upcoming budget
Darren Major CBC (No paywall)Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government will introduce new measures — including a new "bill of rights" — that he says will help protect those who rent their homes as part of the upcoming budget. Trudeau said the new measures are specifically geared toward younger people, who are renting more than previous generations. "It's about changing the rules of the game in a way that meets young people where they are," he said on Wednesday. Ottawa will work with provinces and territories to develop a "renters' bill of rights" that would introduce a national standard lease agreement and implement requirements for landlords to disclose an apartment's pricing history to allow tenants to negotiate their rent.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/government-renters-bill-of-righ…
# Hot topic International, .AOC and Sanders aim to place public housing at center of Green New Deal
Dharna Noor The Guardian (No paywall)With a sweeping legislative proposal, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders are attempting to place public housing at the center of the green energy transition, tackling the twin crises of global warming and soaring housing costs. “Public housing should be the gold standard for affordable, environmentally friendly, and safe communities,” Ocasio-Cortez said in an email. “This bill is how we ensure that.” The Green New Deal for Public Housing aims to decarbonize all of the nation’s public housing units – and build more of them – with an investment of between $162bn and $234bn over the next decade.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/21/aoc-bernie-sande…
# Must read International, Public and community housing.How much can my landlord increase my rent and can they keep my deposit or evict me?
Lauren Potts BBC (No paywall)The average cost of renting in the UK rose by 9% in the year to February - the highest annual increase since records began in 2015. What are your rights if your landlord tries to increase your rent, keep your deposit, or evict you? How often can my landlord increase my rent? It depends on your rental agreement and where you live in the UK. Most tenants in England's 4.6m privately rented homes - about one in five households - have an assured shorthold tenancy. These are usually for a fixed term of six or 12 months, or rolling - which means there's no end date.
# Hot topic International, .UK rent prices up 9% in record yearly rise, says ONS
Eleanor Lawrie & Sam Hancock BBC (No paywall)The average cost of rent in the UK rose by 9% in the 12 months to February this year - the highest annual increase since records began in 2015. There were price rises in all parts of the country, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In England, London renters saw costs go up the most at 10.6%, taking average monthly rent in the capital to £2,035. A government spokesperson said its Renters (Reform) Bill would give tenants and landlords a "fairer deal". Average monthly rent increases across the UK ranged from 8.8% in England through to 10.9% in Scotland and 9% in Wales.
# Hot topic International, Rent.Our lack of affordable, safe housing is a national crisis. Here are three things Labour can do to fix it
Peter Apps The Guardian (No paywall)The failures in housing policy over several generations are now all too obvious: rising homelessness, families and key workers priced out of cities and a generation unable to move out of their parents’ homes. The next government needs to take radical action to change this picture, rather than make small tweaks to a failed system. These are some of the steps I would take to get there...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/27/safe-affor…
# International, Public and community housing.Ministers Met Landlords Twice As Often As Tenants’ Groups Over Renters’ Reform Bill
Andrew Kersley Politics Home (No paywall)United Kingdom: Ministers met with lobbyists for landlords and estate agents twice as often as they did groups representing renters as they worked to refine new protections for tenants in the landmark Renters Reform Bill, according to analysis by PoliticsHome. At the heart of the government’s initial proposal to reform the private rental sector was a pledge to abolish the practice of ‘no fault ’evictions – the ability for landlords to evict tenants without cause often in retaliation for them making complaints.
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/ministers-met-landlord…
# Hot topic International, .Could rent control be the answer to England’s housing crisis?
Vicky Spratt inews.co.uk (No paywall)Scotland’s government has taken a radical leap towards making rent regulation (aka rent control) permanent after its emergency rent freeze trial. If the legislation, being proposed by the SNP government in its Housing (Scotland) Bill, passes, it will cap the amount by which landlords can increase rents for existing tenants. Housing campaigners such as Living Rent Scotland have long argued that rent control is necessary. In England, the renters’ rights and advocacy group Generation Rent celebrated the move.
https://inews.co.uk/news/housing/could-rent-control-england-hous…
# Legal significance International, .Plans Without the People
Sam Wheeler Tribune (UK) (No paywall)Last Christmas I came out of a pub in Manchester city centre with my brother, parents and grandparents early in the evening. I looked up from the base of one of the towers along Great Ancoats Street. 14 stories, 100 or so apartments. I saw four lights on. One supposes this great exodus of the new workforce that occurs around the holidays would have been familiar to President Xi when he visited Manchester in 2015, along with much of the rest of the model. Dengism with Mancunian characteristics. That slightly uncanny feeling came back to me when I read Isaac Rose’s book, The Rentier City.
# International, Rent.