Tidbits

There are little morsels of housing news on which I will report briefly here.  First up, there is the new issue of Welsh Housing Quarterly which contains the usual, interesting range of articles, including an interview with Sian Gwenllian (nothing much there which hasn’t been discussed here),  a nice piece on the implementation of homelessness reform, and a good piece by Tazu Walden from the IPPR on their research in to rent control.

I’ve just signed up to the Bevan Foundation’s webinar, “Holidays or homes? The loss of homes for the people of Wales to holiday accommodation”.  That is on 9th September, the day before the Welsh Housing Law Masterclasses – you could sign up to both.  On the subject of the latter, thank you to the 50 people who have already signed up.  If you have missed the ad and/or want to join us on 10th and 11st September, then please sign up.  The more the merrier,, and there is loads to discuss.

There is also a consultation paper on holiday homes tax rules if this issue floats your boat.

The other major announcement this week has been that Help to Buy, Help to Stay and the Empty Homes Grant have been extended to March 2027.  I don’t really understand why the welfare state should be extended to these schemes (other than the empty homes one).  There are surely better ways of spending our money than lining developers’ pockets and assisting higher income households (see this report by the IFS).

I’m off on leave intermittently for a couple of weeks now, trying to finish a piece of work (on welfare chauvinism) and start the next one (a biography of homelessness law) and so probably won’t post again until the end of the month.  I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at the Masterclasses on 10th and 11th September – remember to sign up!