Almshouse residents may live up to two and a half years longer, study finds

Co-author says UK’s oldest form of social housing could be part of solution to care crisis

Poor, older people living in almshouses enjoy longer lives than far wealthier people living elsewhere, a study has found.

The secret to longer life has been intensely sought after for centuries. But research using data from almshouses going back 100 years has found that the solution devised in early medieval times to help poverty-stricken knights returning from the Crusades is still relevant today.

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Sale of Waterloo South public housing will see residents rehoused nearby, NSW government pledges

Exclusive: Tenants feel let down by Labor, but Chris Minns insists sale does not meet ‘definition of privatisation’

The New South Wales housing mister, Rose Jackson, is moving to reassure tenants in the Waterloo South public housing they will be rehoused within the suburb and offered spots back in the complex when the controversial development is completed.

The government has been fending off criticism for proceeding with the sale and is pushing forward with plans to sell more land to developers for housing, despite promising to end privatisation and freeze the sale of all social housing assets.

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Sadiq Khan hails surpassing of affordable housing target in London

Capital’s mayor lauds achievement but warns skyrocketing rents pose threat to ‘the soul of our city’

Sadiq Khan is to announce the surpassing of a landmark housebuilding target in London, but will warn that the capital’s skyrocketing rents pose a threat to “the soul of our city”.

In a speech on Monday setting out his stall before the 2024 election for city hall, the mayor of London will say that nearly 120,000 affordable homes have been built in the capital since 2015, equivalent to the housing stock of Plymouth.

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Landlord admits it made assumptions about family in mouldy Rochdale flat

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing says ‘we got that wrong’ after two-year-old killed by exposure to mould

The landlord of the flat lived in by a two-year-old boy who died because of long-term exposure to mould has admitted it made false assumptions about his family’s lifestyle when they raised complaints.

Awaab Ishak’s parents, who originally came from Sudan, last week accused Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) of racism over its handling of the damp and fungus they faced. The landlord failed to fix the mould or improve ventilation despite complaints and had suggested issues such as bathing habits and cooking techniques might be a cause when they were not.

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Michael Gove accuses social landlords of ‘complacency’ after child’s death

Housing secretary says landlords have been ‘defensive’ over dangerous conditions, after death of Awaab Ishak

Michael Gove has accused social landlords of “complacency” and putting bureaucracy above tenants, as he stepped up his demands for higher standards after the death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak from long-term exposure to mould.

The housing secretary told MPs too many landlords had shown “defensive behaviour” when receiving complaints about squalor, but also admitted the extent of dangerous conditions was so great that more funding may be needed fix the problem – potentially setting up a clash with the chancellor.

He and the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, have commissioned a review of council tax, which he described as the “second-most unpopular tax in the country”. He promised more detail in the new year.

The government’s target to end rough sleeping is in doubt, with Gove describing it as “a big worry”.

Families hosting refugees from Ukraine will hear within weeks whether they will get continuing payments.

Disabled people in high-rise buildings should have personal evacuation plans, as recommended by the Grenfell Tower public inquiry, despite the Home Office rejecting the call.

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Proposal for motels to house homeless people to be brought to Queensland summit

Repurposing of existing accommodation and other facilities to be suggested at government-convened housing meeting

Hotels and motels would be repurposed to house homeless people under a proposal to be tabled at Queensland’s affordable housing summit on Thursday.

The proposal is among a string of ideas to be floated for urgent relief for the tens of thousands of people who are on the state’s social housing waiting list, couch surfing or sleeping in cars or on the streets.

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Queenslanders miss out on social housing due to failures to build homes and inaccurate waiting lists

Auditor general’s report says waiting list has grown 78% since 2018 and amount of housing stock has not kept pace

Thousands of Queenslanders are missing out on social housing because the state government is failing to build enough homes, keep an accurate waiting list or manage its existing stock, a report says.

There are 30,922 households approved for social housing on the state’s housing register, which has grown by 78% since 2018.

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Social housing tenant forced to cook in living room amid Victoria’s ‘broken’ complaints system, report says

Investigation recommends the state creates dedicated social housing ombudsman and makes law changes

A social housing tenant was left to cook in her living room while another was forced to shower at public facilities for months, an investigation into Victoria’s “broken” housing complaints system has found.

In a report tabled in parliament on Thursday morning, the state ombudsman, Deborah Glass, said the investigation had found a “broken complaint system”, prompting the need for a social housing ombudsman and changes to the law.

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From energy costs to TV bills: what has gone up in price today?

Britons face a shock as household costs soar – and some unexpected items such as beer also go up

It’s been dubbed “bleak Friday” by some: pre-announced price rises for many household bills are to take effect on 1 April, adding to the misery for consumers who are already paying more for goods and food than this time last year.

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‘Sometimes the answer is to do nothing’: unflashy French duo take architecture’s top prize

The Pritzker prize, once reserved for flamboyant creators of icons, has gone to Lacaton & Vassal, whose rallying cry is: ‘Never demolish, never remove – always add, transform and reuse’

When Lacaton & Vassal were commissioned to redesign a public square in Bordeaux, their response was unusual. The French architects told the client to leave it alone. They thought the square was perfectly good as it was, and that public money would be better spent elsewhere.

“When you go to the doctor,” said Jean-Philippe Vassal, “they might tell you that you’re fine, that you don’t need any medicine. Architecture should be the same. If you take time to observe, and look very precisely, sometimes the answer is to do nothing.” In Bordeaux, the architects’ diagnosis was that the square just needed some new gravel.

Vassal and his partner, Anne Lacaton, have built a 30-year career on knowing how to intervene with the most economical of means, for which they have now been recognised with the Pritzker prize, architecture’s highest honour. In an age of demolishing public housing and replacing it with shiny new carbon-hungry developments in the name of “regeneration”, Lacaton & Vassal have worked tirelessly to expand and upgrade existing buildings with surgical precision, transforming the lives of thousands of people in the process.

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‘Future relics’: the painter capturing the beauty of council houses

Frank Laws’s Hopperesque watercolours depict the individual character of east London’s most impressive – and everyday – buildings, as gentrification threatens their very existence

From Mike Leigh’s film Meantime to the TV show Top Boy, the social housing estates of east London have provided rich subject matter for writers and artists exploring the human stories intertwining in their communities. In the paintings of east Londoner Frank Laws, however, there isn’t a person in sight. The only signs of life are curtains flapping at open windows and the luminescent glow emanating from inside a home. Blocks of flats that teem with life in, say, Plan B’s film and album Ill Manors, stand eerily quiet and vacant in Laws’s images.

Laws was born in a village in Norfolk but hated the rural quiet. “I was always scared of the dark in the countryside,” says the 37-year-old. “I’m still scared of it.” It’s this fear, and Laws’ love of film noir, that informs the dramatic, Edward Hopperesque lighting in Laws’ meticulously detailed watercolour and acrylic paintings.

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The story of Grenfell United – podcast

Natasha Elcock and Ed Daffarn escaped from Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017. Karim Mussilhy’s uncle died in the fire. Together with other survivors and bereaved people, they formed Grenfell United. They talk about their work over the past two years, while the Guardian’s social affairs correspondent, Rob Booth, discusses government inaction

In the early hours of 14 June 2017, a fire broke out at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, west London. It killed 72 people, including 18 children. In the chaos that followed, survivors and the bereaved felt abandoned by local authorities and the government, and began to organise into a community group, which became known as Grenfell United.

Today, on the second anniversary of the fire, Natasha Elcock, Ed Daffarn and Karim Mussilhy discuss the work the group has been doing and their attempts to tackle what they see as one of the most devastating aspects of the fire: government inaction. The Guardian’s social affairs correspondent, Rob Booth, has been covering the story of Grenfell since the blaze. He talks to Anushka Asthana about why more progress has not been made.

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Peterborough prepares for byelection that could elect first Brexit party MP

A decade ago it was the UK’s fastest growing city, but hit by cuts and buy-to-let, support for Nigel Farage’s party is high

On Thursday, voters in Peterborough will take part in one of the most intriguing parliamentary byelections in recent memory. The constituency saw a knife-edge duel between Labour and the Conservatives at the 2017 general election and at last month’s European poll, 38% of voters in the city backed the Brexit party. A first seat in the House of Commons for Nigel Farage’s party is a distinct possibility. If that happens, it will send tremors through middle England, of which Peterborough is typical in many ways, not just geographically.

Economically, Peterborough performs averagely amid struggles with productivity. Wages are stagnant and it has been reshaped by migration, with foreigners arriving to work in the surrounding farmlands and distribution depots, contributing to a decade as the UK’s fastest growing city between 2001 and 2011.

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Goodbye to Gomorrah: the end of Italy’s most notorious housing estate

Famous as the setting for the hit film and TV series Gomorrah, the towers of Le Vele became synonymous with poverty and organised crime – until residents took charge

“When I think of my life in Le Vele, my skin crawls with rage,” says Omero Benfenati.

He looks out from a dark, narrow passageway framed by suspended steel stairways that block the natural light and lead up to abandoned apartments. Most of the windows are bricked up, and liquid leaks from split pipes on to the sewage and refuse-strewn asphalt several storeys below.

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