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David Cowan

David Cowan

The site provides information, updates and discussion on Welsh housing and homelessness law. It is all free, but it is just our opinions, and NOT legal advice. Please do not ask for advice on individual matters.

Latest posts

Three tidbits

Posted on 7 March 2025 by David Cowan

Three tidbits of interesting news/gossip: First, a bit of gossip.  I now have it from two different sources that the Court of Appeal has granted permission to appeal in Coastal […]

Rent smart?

Posted on 28 February 2025 by David Cowan

At some point in February, Rent Smart Wales put out their most recent newsletter.  For those of you not in the know, Rent Smart Wales is the organisation, run out […]

Early Municipal Housing in Swansea

Posted on 25 February 2025 by David Cowan

If you are not a reader of the Municipal Dreams substack (why not?), which covers histories of the development of council housing, then you are missing out.  It is absolutely […]

Housing First

Posted on 25 February 2025 by David Cowan

Housing First is an intervention which seeks to resolve homelessness (particularly street homelessness and rough sleeping) through the provision of housing (without any precondition), and then inputting relevant services for […]

Second homes

Posted on 24 February 2025 by David Cowan

The lovely county of Gwynedd has been in the news for reasons other than its beauty.  It made the BBC, Guardian (Rowan Moore column), Mail (for policy reasons, I don't […]

Holding post …

Posted on 20 February 2025 by David Cowan

Apologies but I've had the dreaded lurgy this week and have just about managed to do my teaching but not write a post.  I plan a post about a Housing […]

Coastal 2

Posted on 14 February 2025 by David Cowan

The first post on this blog concerned the blockbuster judgment in Coastal Housing Group v Mitchell.  In short, it will be remembered that contract-holders who were not served with electrical condition reports […]

Local housing allowance

Posted on 14 February 2025 by David Cowan

I suspect that there is not much a lawyer could find that interesting about individual subsidy, but this week the coalescence of housing law and policy is the focus of […]

While Rome burns …

Posted on 7 February 2025 by David Cowan

It has been a pretty depressing and stressful week at Cardiff University.  The financial model of higher education across the UK has been broken for a while, and colleagues in […]

Cross-referencing

Posted on 31 January 2025 by David Cowan

In the spirit of blogocracy, I plan also to signpost to other blogs where issues of relevance to Wales are discussed.  Here is a non-inclusive list: The Housing Studies Association […]