By GMLC staff (@gmlawcentre) On 11th January 2021, the government’s “winter truce” on residential evictions is due to end, leaving more tenants vulnerable to eviction this winter in the middle of the COVID second wave. The business evictions ban has already been extended to March 2021, but tenants still await news on the situation …
The Fightback Against University Marketisation: What We Can Learn From the Success of Manchester’s Rent Strikers
By Isaac Levin Schtulberg In mid-September university students across the UK left their collective isolation to begin a new year at university. For many, this brought hope and excitement — a year promised to be of the same quality as any prior, with sociable societies, safe face-to-face learning and an abundance of the opportunities …
The rise of Local Housing Companies: A new municipalism or austerity driven financialisation?
By Joe Beswick (@joebeswick1) The withdrawal of the state from the provision of (council) housing is perhaps the primary cause of the deep housing crisis which limits lives for millions of us in the UK. But over the past decade this withdrawal has in some ways begun to shift. If articles in the progressive …
An end to landlordism
By Beth Stratford (@beth_stratford) Buy To Let landlords have played such a big role in inflating the current housing bubble, that serious attempts to rein in landlord extractivism would likely trigger a house price crash. The vast majority of voters are home owners. So how can we persuade governments to end the exploitation and …
The Berlin Rent Cap: can it be applied to the UK?
By Siobhan Donnachie (@Siobhan_e_d) To most people, receiving a letter from your Landlord stating you are entitled to a significant rent reduction would seem like a cruel and sadistic joke. Last month my housemates and I received a letter from the real estate company managing our apartment saying our rent would be cut …
Block the block!
By Hulme residents (@BlocktheBlock1) We are a group of residents living in Cooper House and Hopton Court in Hulme. Many of us have lived in Hulme for most or all of our lives. We have watched the pubs that we used to socialise in gradually disappear to redevelopment. We now have some shared gardens …
GMHA Pamphlet — the Myth of the Good Landlord
By Greater Manchester Housing Action (@gmhousingaction) Earlier this year we published a piece on our site, ‘The Good Landlord is a Myth’ by ACORN Liverpool member Tom Lavin. The piece sought to take to task the oft-heard distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ landlords — sometimes used even by housing NGOs — in order …
“We need scale and structure to really have a positive effect on the region”
By Greater Manchester Labour for a Green New Deal (@mcrLabGND) Recently, a group of climate activists from Manchester Labour for a Green New Deal have made headlines across local and national outlets for their ingenious plans to retrain out of work theatre workers to retrofit homes to address the climate crisis. GMHA has long been in favour …
A New Hope? How the Liverpool City Region is Pioneering New Pathways in Community Land Ownership
By Lily Gordon Brown (@lilygbrown) Introduction The last decade has seen the UK steeped in a crisis of several iterations, as governments have sought to shift the fiscal consequences of the 2008 financial crash on to local communities. This includes councils up and down the country deliberately being forced to selling off public …