Regulation of the private rented sector (PRS) is one of several measures being called for to help end homelessness in England.
Homeless Link, the umbrella body for homelessness charities, has mapped out steps that it believes need to be taken to prevent and tackle homelessness in the face of service cuts and the Government's forthcoming welfare changes.
The coming bedroom tax will end up costing Scottish taxpayers more not less, a housing charity has warned.
Shelter Scotland is now calling on the Scottish Government to make £50m available to protect the country's tenants from the under-occupancy charge which is due in April.
The Department for Work and Pensions has pledged to protect some of the pensioners that could be hit by the bedroom tax.
Inside Housing last week revealed thousands of pensioners could be affected by the bedroom tax - even though the government had previously maintained it would only affect benefit claimants of working age.
A housing association's chief executive has labelled the Government's plans for direct payments to tenants under Universal Credit as "daft".
Matt Cooney, CEO of asra Housing Group, has written to MPs to urge them to pressure the Government into rethinking its plans, claiming that direct payments will be damaging to both social landlords and tenants.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has called for better regulation of lettings agents after identifying several consumer protection issues.
An OFT report which analysed almost 4,000 complaints made by renters and landlords found that both groups were concerned about fees levied by agents, poor service and that "surprise" charges were introduced or "drip-fed" once contracts have been signed.
“The very high housing costs in Camden and across London mean that low-income households will find it increasingly hard to find affordable accommodation if they are not in social housing.
“Sadly however, the scale of the cuts, high private rental costs and lack of available housing in Camden will mean that more people will soon have to consider moving from the borough and in some cases London entirely.”
Labour’s Stephen Timms, speaking on Radio 4 yesterday, criticised the controversial policy, under which benefit claimants in social housing of working age with spare rooms will have their benefit cut from 1 April.
Mr Timms said: ‘We have argued for the last two years that it would be fine to apply the penalty where people have refused to take smaller accommodation, but to penalise people when there’s nowhere smaller to move to is perverse.’
A London council is considering shipping tenants that'll be hit by the coming benefit cuts as far away as Leicester and Birmingham.
Camden Council's Tory leader, Andrew Mennear, has backed the plan, saying that "London's not everything. There is a life outside of London".
A flagship Conservative council is housing families in hotels costing more than £1,000 a week because it cannot find alternative accommodation.
Figures released by Westminster Council show it has used six hotels where a room for a week costs more than £1,000, with the most expensive, the Royal Eagle Hotel, costing £1,540.
Liberal Democrat peers have called for there to be no fresh welfare cuts before the next general election.
Peers yesterday debated the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill, which will cap increases in a number of benefits at 1 per cent rather than the level of inflation as is currently the case.