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
Councils were stripped of planning powers. This mayor wants to go further
Anthony Segaert The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Parramatta’s lord mayor says local councils deserve to have some planning powers taken away because elected officials have been “playing politics” with major infrastructure decisions. As debate rages over councils’ powers to reject housing and entertainment applications in the face of controversial government reforms, Labor Mayor Pierre Esber told the Herald he believed the number of councillors in Parramatta should be halved, and those left made to work full-time in a bid to “professionalise” the lowest level of government.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/councils-were-stripped-of-pl…
# NSW, Rent.‘It would just ruin it’: The Sydney suburb wriggling its way out of the state’s housing policy
Michael Koziol The Sydney Morning Herald (Soft Paywall)When Jim Softsis spots the local mayor and the Herald loitering outside his Croydon home, he is quick to emerge and say hello. And check what we are doing, of course. John Faker, the Labor mayor of Burwood, is trying to recall whether this Federation house was his uncle’s 40 years ago. It turns out it was next door. But on this wide, suburban street, many houses look the same. That’s the whole point. We are in the Malvern Hill Estate heritage conservation area, one of Sydney’s “garden suburbs” developed from 1909 under a rubric of single-storey, brick and stone detached homes with slate or terracotta tile roofs.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/it-would-just-ruin-it-the-sy…
# NSW, .Outrage as residents in England’s ‘affordable’ housing forced to pay thousands of pounds extra in service charge
Jon Ungoed-Thomas The Guardian (No paywall)Some of the UK’s largest housing providers have dramatically increased annual service charges by thousands of pounds, plunging residents into financial crisis, an Observer investigation has found. Many residents who bought shared-ownership properties built as affordable homes have been sent bills in recent weeks with increases of more than 40%. Some say they are unable to sell the properties having now been lumbered with “extortionate” charges and no cap on future increases. More than 1,000 people across the country are now threatening to refuse to pay.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/mar/30/outrage-as-resid…
# Hot topic International, .Australia isn't the only country tackling a housing crisis, what is happening overseas?
Nancy Notzon ABC (No paywall)Across the world, other countries face their own housing challenges and tackle them in different ways. Finland has slashed the number of homeless through radical change, while Paris has aggressive plans to keep lower income Parisians in the city. So how do their plans work, and are there takeaways for Australia?
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-drive/inter…
# Audio International, .Housing bill could create new rent control areas
Georgina Hayes BBC (No paywall)The Scottish government has published plans to introduce longer-term rent controls for the private sector. The Housing (Scotland) Bill will place a duty on local councils to carry out assessments on the state of private accommodation in their area. The bill - which comes against the backdrop of four local authorities declaring a housing emergency - has been welcomed by tenants' rights groups. But the Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL) told BBC Scotland the legislation would exacerbate Scotland’s housing crisis.
# Must read International, Rent.‘This hits the wrong people’: holiday let owners say Hunt’s scrapping of tax relief won’t affect rich
Jedidajah Otte The Guardian (No paywall)Jen Boyle, a 64-year-old widow from Falkirk, owns and runs two small holiday lets on the Scottish island of Cumbrae, home to about 1,300 people. In the last tax year, the properties generated £15,000 in turnover, though Boyle’s personal profit was only around £5,000 after expenses. “I pay for heating, water rates, internet, new bedding, occasional repairs and for using the local launderette; I employ local cleaners, gardeners, a local guy who takes out my bins,” she says. “I only charge £420 a week in the high season. People who come to the island tend to be from the Glasgow area and generally don’t have a lot of money, so increasing my rates is not really an option.”
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2024/mar/31/this-hits-the-wron…
# Hot topic International, .Can this ‘ethical capitalist’ solve the UK’s social housing crisis?
Richard Partington The Guardian (No paywall)Britain is a nation obsessed with home ownership. A fundamental necessity for all turned commodity to speculate on, it is featured on daytime TV as entertainment, the sure-fire profit-spinner open to anyone. The truth, as we all know, is that the prospect of home ownership is drifting increasingly out of reach for millions. Figures released last week show that as few as 7% of local authorities in England and Wales have homes that can be bought for less than five times workers’ earnings and are therefore deemed “affordable”. In 1997 the figure was 88%.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/31/ethical-capital…
# Hot topic International, .Ireland’s true class divide: Home-owners hold 97% of wealth. Renters? Just 3%
()What is the easiest way to work out if someone in Ireland is well-off? Maybe ask them where they were educated? Check what they work as? Forget that – by far the easiest way is to ask them whether they own a home. If the answer is ‘Yes’, they almost certainly have decent ‘net wealth’. If the answer is ‘No, I rent’ – well, you can probably guess what that means. But just in case it isn’t clear, here are some stats to drive it home.
https://www.thejournal.ie/wealth-gap-home-ownership-renters-6345…
# Hot topic, Research alert International, Rent.