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.
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 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.
“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.
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.
Samir Jeraj - Freelance Journalist 