Growing numbers of students are experiencing hidden homelessness or accepting poor accommodation
Student housing is reaching a “crisis point” not seen since the 1970s, when students slept in sports halls and their cars, and is set to worsen in the new year, a charity has warned.
Since the start of the academic year, students at universities across the UK have complained of fierce competition for rooms in flatshares for the 2022 and 2023 academic years.
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Wieambilla siege victim Alan Dare to be awarded police bravery medal
An innocent man killed during a violent encounter at a rural Queensland property will be awarded the Queensland Police Bravery Medal.
Well, I think matters about Scott Morrison’s future are best addressed to him.
The review did sign that Scott was personally unpopular and they’ve been very, very effectively demonised in an intense, aggressive and continuing campaign by the Labor party and by the broader green left campaigning apparatus.
Continue reading...Party sees identifying 50-year-old male home-owners as key to electoral success
You’ve met Mondeo Man and Worcester Woman, now meet the key swing voter Labour hopes will win them the next election: middle-aged mortgage man.
Party insiders say they are being ruthless about targeting exactly the kind of voters they believe will put them back into power, homing in on people who previously lost faith with Labour but have been personally affected by the spike in interest rates caused by Liz Truss’ “mini-budget”.
Continue reading...Alameda county in the San Francisco Bay Area adopts measure amid worsening homelessness catastrophe
A California county has become the first in the nation to pass a law banning landlords from conducting criminal background checks on applicants, a significant move meant to curb housing discrimination against formerly incarcerated people.
The Alameda county board of supervisors in the San Francisco Bay Area voted Tuesday to adopt a Fair Chance housing ordinance, which would prohibit landlords in private and public housing from using criminal records when considering prospective tenants. While a few cities have passed similar measures, and at least two counties have adopted partial restrictions, Alameda is the first county in the US to broadly prohibit this practice, advocates say.
Continue reading...Charity documents experiences of some of England’s 121,000 children housed in temporary accommodation
Children in temporary accommodation are living in cramped conditions and alongside former prisoners, in hostels up to 55 miles away from school, according to a leading housing charity.
One 16-year-old from Manchester, who is sharing a single room in an emergency B&B with her mother and two sisters, described having to study sitting on the toilet, her textbook propped on her knees, to revise for GCSEs. “It’s so cold in there my legs go numb after 10 minutes,” she said.
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It’s officially a week before Christmas, which means the forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology are fairly confident they can tell us what whether we can set up for an al fresco Christmas lunch or not.
For some parts of the country, there is a chance of showers:
Particularly in the south, we can get some volatile weather but all the patterns really starting to change as we move into later part of this week.
So we’ll see a weather system move through southern parts of the country, Thursday and Friday. Then a big high-pressure system behind it will quickly move into the Tasman Sea and then kind of sit there over the Christmas weekend into early the following week and normally that drives a lot of warm weather across much of southern parts of the country and our guidance is showing a similar pattern with that as well.
Continue reading...Queensland Council of Social Services report reveals rental costs, inflation and inadequate welfare payments squeezing household budgets
Thousands of low-income families in Queensland don’t have enough money to meet basic living or dietary standards due to surging rental costs and inadequate welfare payments, according to a report.
Queensland Council of Social Services modelling shows unemployed single parents and families where only one parent is able to work are the most vulnerable to financial shocks, emergencies or unplanned expenses.
Continue reading...Sport governing body says ‘such behaviour has no place in Australian football’. This blog is now closed
‘We will look at the facts’
James Johnson is asked whether Melbourne Victory has any outstanding sanctions for past incidents. He says he is not aware of any but past events may be considered as an “aggravating factor” as an investigation into the incident unfolds:
There is no other suspended disciplinary action that I’m aware of, but what I will say is that we will be working through that today. We have already started working on the show cause process as of late last night, and we will be moving forward as quickly and swiftly as possible to finalise it, because it is important we get ahead of this issue as a sport.
What I can say is that we will look at the facts, we’ll look at it objectively and we will take a decision that we believe is in the overall best interest of the game but I prefer not to comment on the specifics of the outcome because we have to go through that process first.
What happened during the game last night and what happens with the result;
A “show cause letter” to Melbourne Victory;
An attempt to identify individuals involved in the pitch invasion.
This is an element that … infiltrates our game and tries to ruin it for the people who love us was in. We’ll be looking to weed out those people from the sport.
Continue reading...Victor Dominello says renters are at risk since there are ‘essentially no rules’, and enforceable guidelines will be in place early in the new year
New South Wales will introduce new guidelines on the personal data security of renters in a bid to crack down on cyber-attacks and identity fraud.
The rule change, announced by the state government on Saturday, will come into effect early next year and replace the need to give copies of documents in rental applications from passports to birth certificates.
Continue reading...Data suggests private tenants almost three times as likely to be exposed to damp as social housing tenants
Almost a quarter of private rentals in England fail to meet the decent home standards, government figures have revealed, meaning they pose a risk to health, are in disrepair, have poor facilities, or are poorly insulated.
Data from the English Housing Survey, released on Thursday, highlights the poor state of the country’s private rental sector, with 23% of private rentals failing to meet the decent homes standard in 2021-22. That compares with just 13% of owner-occupied homes, and 10% of social housing.
Continue reading...As temperatures plunge, fears grow for households struggling to pay for heating, food and warm clothing
More than 3 million low-income UK households cannot afford to heat their homes, according to research, as a “dangerously cold” weather front arrived from the Arctic.
The UK Health Security Agency has issued a cold weather alert recommending vulnerable people warm their homes to at least 18C, wear extra layers and eat hot food to protect themselves from plummeting temperatures.
Continue reading...Labour’s motion calling on the government to release all documents and advice relating to contracts awarded to PPE Medpro has also now passed
Labour received £4.7m in donations between July and September, more than any other party, PA Media reports. PA says:
The sum received by Labour is significantly greater than that donated to the Conservatives, which, according to Electoral Commission data, received £2.9m over the same period.
The Liberal Democrats recorded about £1.7m, according to returns submitted to the Electoral Commission, with more than £11m in total donated to 19 separate UK political parties.
Lynch, the RMT general secretary, said the government was to blame for not allowing the train companies to make an offer acceptable to his members. He said:
The government are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what is going on. They have held back even these paltry offers to the last minute.
He claimed the rail companies were not losing out from strike action, because they were subsidised by the government, and he described this system as “perverse and corrupt”. He explained:
They get indemnified for every day of strike action. They are paid the money that they would otherwise have lost, and the only people that lose are my members who lose their wages and the public and these businesses in hospitality who lose their income as well, while the people I negotiate with lose no money whatsoever.
It is the most perverse and corrupt system we have ever seen in British business where those people that are conducting the dispute make no losses whatsoever and the taxpayer subsidises those people by money given directly from the DfT [Department for Transport].
He said the timing of the latest strikes was “unfortunate”, but he claimed the union was forced to act. He said:
We have to respond to what the companies are doing, and they’re doing that very deliberately. They’re seeking to ratchet up the dispute.
He accepted that, although the additional strikes were over Christmas, when rail services were very minimal anyway, they would create further disruption for passengers. In the past Lynch had said the RMT wanted to avoid strike action over Christmas.
He defended the RMT’s decision to object to a move to driver-only trains. Driver-only operation was “less safe”, he said. Women and disabled passengers wanted to see guards on trains, he said, because they felt that was safer and more welcoming. When the presenter, Justin Webb, put it to Lynch that driver-only trains still had another member of staff on board, and that they just did not have a staff member operating the doors, Lynch said that was wrong. He said most of these services did not have anyone else on board, apart from the driver.
Continue reading...Mother of two urged to free up crisis accommodation for others amid a huge blowout in social housing wait times
A domestic violence survivor has been told by her emergency housing provider that she should consider moving with her two children and their pets into a rooming house to free up the accommodation for other victims, as huge blowouts in social housing wait times continue to affect vulnerable Victorians.
Ms Stewart, who asked that her first name not be printed, entered crisis accommodation run by the charity Good Shepherd at the height of Victoria’s Covid-19 lockdowns last year.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Gareth Swarbrick fired four days after coroner found two-year-old Awaab died because of ‘chronic exposure’ to mould
The boss of the social housing landlord of the mouldy flat that killed Awaab Ishak has been sacked, following days of growing pressure from the two-year-old’s family, ministers and MPs.
Gareth Swarbrick, who on Thursday issued a defiant statement refusing to quit, was fired on Saturday by the board of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing.
Continue reading...Human rights council makes more than 300 recommendations, with many coming from less well-off countries
The UK must tackle rising poverty, the United Nations human rights council has said in a report that includes demands from less well-off countries for the British government to act.
Amid worsening financial prospects for millions, the member states of the UN body also demanded action on housing to prevent homelessness, better food security for young children, and equal rights for people with disabilities.
Continue reading...Awaab Ishak died in 2020, eight days after his second birthday, following ‘chronic exposure’ in Rochdale
A coroner has said the death of an “engaging, lively, endearing” two-year-old from prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s flat should be a “defining moment” for the UK’s housing sector.
Awaab Ishak died in 2020, eight days after his second birthday, as a direct result of black mould in the flat he lived in.
Continue reading...One councillor accused of ‘fear-mongering and smears’ over comments about crisis accommodation residents as families worry about future
A proposal by Resilience NSW to construct 40 modular homes for flood survivors on a sports field in the New South Wales northern rivers town of Lismore has been rejected by the local council, leaving the town divided.
The proposal had been scaled back after an initial plan was voted down by Lismore council two months ago, six votes to five.
Continue reading...State opposition leader Chris Minns also pushes for tighter rules around evicting tenants without reasonable grounds
Almost a million renters in New South Wales would be able to transfer their bond from one property to the next and couldn’t be kicked out of their homes without reasonable grounds given, under a plan proposed by state Labor.
The pledge ahead of the 2023 election comes amid soaring rents in Sydney and rising accommodation costs in regional areas, with NSW’s median rent increasing from $386 to $420 a week between 2016 and 2021.
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