Archive for the ‘articles’ Category

Lessons from German rented housing

Posted: November 12, 2013 in articles, housing
0

Germany has one of the biggest private rented sectors in the developed world. Yet they seem to make it work with a set of strong rights for tenants. I did a brief profile for the Landlord Law Blog. I’m hoping to do another one or two on how other countries approach private rented housing.

“We in the UK often like to borrow our policies (good and bad) from other countries. We’ve got Elected Mayors and Academy Schools from the US, Free Schools from Sweden, and Feed-in Tariffs from Germany. What, if anything can we learn from the country with the biggest private rented housing sector in Europe, Germany?” Read the full post here.

Bikes on Film

Posted: November 12, 2013 in articles
Tags: ,
0

This is something a bit lighter I did for The Guardian as part of their Clip Joints series. The idea being to pick around five clips from films within a theme. As I’m quite into cycling I thought I’d do one on depictions of bicycles. Read it here.

California Council takes on Wall Street

Posted: November 12, 2013 in articles, housing, local government
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Here in the UK we haven’t seen as dramatic a rise in repossessions as in the US, where it is a major problem. I interviewed Gayle McLaughlin, the Mayor of Richmond, for The New Internationalist. Mayor McLaughlin and her City Council are about to start using the ‘power of eminent domain’ (similar to compulsory purchasing orders in the UK) to stop foreclosures. Read the full interview here.

 

Estate Agents boom

Posted: November 12, 2013 in articles, housing
Tags: , ,
0

I’ve been very busy for the past few weeks, so I’m catching up on posts.

After the announcement that Estate Agents had seen a massive rise in employment, I set my sights on picking apart current housing policy.

“A few months ago, several news organisations announced a “JOBS BOOM” as unemployment dropped from 7.8% to 7.7%. Many of the new jobs created were in estate agents, which grew by nearly 10% in just three months. However, we should be careful of building our economy (again) on the sand castle of the housing market.” Read the full article here.

 

Rent Control 25 Years On

Posted: October 10, 2013 in articles, housing
0

Rent controls were abolished in the UK under the 1988 Housing Act. This brought over 70 years of rent regulation to an end. I wrote a short post of the history of rent controls, why they were introduced, and their current place in social policy – always a contentious topic.

Read the full post here.  The comments are also very interesting as well.

Estate Agent economy – Article for Open Democracy

Posted: October 10, 2013 in articles, housing
0

“A few months ago, several news organisations announced a “JOBS BOOM” as unemployment dropped from 7.8% to 7.7%. Many of the new jobs created were in estate agents, which grew by nearly 10% in just three months. However, we should be careful of building our economy (again) on the sand castle of the housing market.” Read the full article here.

Intersectionality and Mental Health

Posted: October 5, 2013 in articles
0

I wrote a second essay for Open Democracy’s Structure of Patriarchy series. This time applying ideas and concepts of intersectionality to the issue of Mental Health.

“There’s a long literature on oppression, discrimination, and mental health. Yet not much on intersectionality, the study of multiple and linked oppressions/discrimination, and mental health.” Read the full article here.

Intersectionality and domestic violence

Posted: September 9, 2013 in articles
Tags: ,
0

Intersectionality can be quite a controversial subject. Basically put, it examines multiple and simultaneous discriminations and oppressions. As part of Open Democracy’s series on the structure of patriarchy I’ve written something up on the topic of domestic violence, using intersectionality to argue for a broader and varied approach without getting tied up in knots. I’m hoping to follow this up with another article on intersectionality and mental health, something which hasn’t been explored much in the media yet.

 

“Arguably, the first major legislative victory of second wave feminism in the UK was in 1976. Parliament passed the first law in the UK against domestic violence: The Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976. This granted County Courts the power to issue exclusion orders and non-molestation orders in cases of domestic violence.” Read the full article here.

Tenants’ Rights and water meters

Posted: August 20, 2013 in articles, housing
Tags: , , ,
0

I’ve got a post over at the Landlord Law Blog on what the legal rights are for tenants on water meters. Somewhat ironically, it seems there’s a stronger set of rights around water meters for tenants (you can have one installed if you’re there for longer than 6 months) than to other things like security of tenure, affordability of rent etc. So, to be blunt, you can insist on having a water meter installed  – but at the end of the day a landlord could just give you your two months notice without a reason, so there’s not much of an incentive to fight for your consumer rights. I’ll be following this up with a post soon about other utilities, and how things work in more complicated housing situations.

“Many green-minded and money-conscious tenants look to water meters to help them cut back the costs and their environmental impact. However, there is often confusion between landlords, tenants, and agents as to what the rules are.” Read the full article here. 

Select Committee Report on Private Rented Housing

Posted: July 31, 2013 in articles, housing
Tags: , ,
0

Here’s a post I’ve written up for Tessa Shepperson over at Landlord Law. It summarises a Communities and Local Government (CLG) Select Committee report on private rented housing sector (PRS). There have been more reports in the past decade on the PRS than you could shake a giant bunch of keys at. Most of these are worthy and well researched with clear recommendations – the problem is no one in central government really wants to do them.

Suffice to say I wasn’t impressed with the final CLG report, and have my doubts as to whether anything significant will happen as a result. In the next couple of months I’ll be looking into whether the current law is being enforced.

“In the last two weeks private rented housing (or PRS to use the jargon) has been on the mind of every policy wonk in the UK. The reason being publication of a report on private rented housing by the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.”

The full article can be read here.

Older Entries
Newer Entries