‘The extent of the crisis facing Britain’s private renters is revealed today as new analysis shows millions of tenants are living in homes that contain dangerous safety hazards and have been deemed unfit for habitation under Government standards.

Almost a third (29 per cent) of homes rented from private landlords fail to meet the national Decent Homes Standard – meaning they either contain safety hazards or do not have acceptable kitchen and bathroom facilities or adequate heating – according to exclusive analysis by The Independent.

In total, 1.4 million households containing several million people are currently living in unsafe or unsuitable rented accommodation – almost 20,000 more than in 2013. While local councils and social housing landlords have a legal obligation to act if their homes are deemed to be substandard, there are far fewer obligations on private landlords.’

Read more: Third of private rented homes fail basic health and safety standards, new analysis finds

---

Flashback January 2016: Tories vote down law requiring landlords make their homes fit for human habitation

‘Conservative MPs have voted to reject a proposed rule that would have required private landlords to make their homes “fit for human habitation”.

The vote, which came on Tuesday night, was on proposed amendment to the Government’s new Housing and Planning Bill – a raft of new laws aimed at reforming housing law.

The Labour-proposed amendment was rejected by 312 votes to 219, however.

According to Parliament’s register of interests, 72 of the MPs who voted against the amendment are themselves landlords who derive an income from a property.’

Read more: Third of private rented homes fail basic health and safety standards, new analysis finds

‘Nearly a quarter of a million people are experiencing acute forms of homelessness across Britain, with rough sleeping set to rise by 76 percent by 2026 unless the government takes serious long-term action, the homelessness charity Crisis has warns.

About 9,100 people were sleeping rough in 2016 at any one time, while 68,300 were sofa surfing, 19,300 were living in unsuitable temporary accommodation, and 37,200 were living in hostels, the research by Heriot-Watt University for the charity says.

A further 26,000 were living in other circumstances, with 8,900 sleeping in tents, cars or on public transport, more than 12,000 living in squats, and 5,000 in women’s refuges or night shelters.

The report says that at any one point last year, an estimated 236,000 people were experiencing a form of homelessness in Britain, including 50,000 children.

Without action, the most acute forms of homelessness are likely to keep climbing, with overall numbers forecast to rise by more than a quarter (26.5 percent) over the next 10 years to 202,200 in 2026, the report says.’

Read more: Homelessness in Britain to rise 76% over next decade, charity warns

‘It all began as a series of daring accretions starting last December. Now, Tent City in Sydney’s Martin Place has become something of an institution, albeit of the fleeting sort. But this gathering of the homeless, rather than being considered a social consequence of galloping house prices and general cost of living, has been uneven in pulling heartstrings.

Benedict Brook, writing for the site News.com.au, commences by describing a site where “dining is alfresco, the security 24/7 and the view, of some of Sydney’s most historic buildings, is sublime.” This lends itself to an inadvertent act of nose-turning disgust, with those in tent city supposedly making inappropriate use of a prime slice of real estate which “won’t cost anything at all.”

To Brook’s credit, the rest of the piece rises from its initially unpromising dredges, sketching a few humane portraits. He takes note of Nigel Blackmore’s tent, located in the middle of this accumulating wonder.

“I was the kind of person who would walk past, be annoyed, and ring the council and say ‘when will you move these bloody people on?’”

Then came divorce, the loss of a job, and the need to find accommodation. How mighty the high do fall.’

Read more: Dismantling Tent City. Gathering of the Homeless in Sydney, Australia

‘The mayor of Salt Lake County, Utah went undercover as a homeless person with just the clothes on his back before deciding where to place a new shelter. He has now spoken out about his experience, saying he “didn’t feel safe” due to drug abuse and violence.

Mayor Ben McAdams can generally be found wearing a suit as he governs Utah’s most populous county.

However, he broke that rule on March 24, when he left his office wearing jeans, sneakers, and a hoodie, and embarked on his new adventure as a homeless person.

He and an unnamed colleague left the comfort of their homes, their IDs, and their money behind. For three days and two nights, they immersed themselves with the city’s homeless population, spending one night in a shelter and one on the streets.’

Read more: ‘Shocking’ experience: Utah mayor goes undercover as homeless man

‘Inmates should wear Guantanamo-style jumpsuits and shackles to help combat prison violence, a union boss has said.

Mark Fairhurst, acting chairman of the Prison Officers Association, also suggested locking them up for 23 hours a day if they misbehave and putting them behind glass during visits.

‘The American experience is the only one left,’ said Mr Fairhurst of HMP Liverpool. ‘Maybe it’s time we tried that.’

Guantanamo Bay, a US military prison located in Cuba, has been widely been accused for detaining prisoners without trial and faced allegations of torture.

Amnesty International has branded the prison, dubbed the most expensive in the world, a ‘major breach of human rights’.

His controversial remarks come less than a week after ‘Tornado’ riot teams had to wrestle back control of HMP The Mount, in Hertfordshire.’

Read more: Prisoners in Britain’s violence-hit jails should wear Guantanamo jumpsuits and shackles and be locked up 23 hours a day, says prison union boss

‘Refugees have continued their protest on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island detention centre over the removal of power, water, and medical services. A journalist on the scene warns that there could be a “big tragedy” if they are forcibly removed.

The protests at the detention centre, which is run by Australia, have reportedly been met with an increased security presence for most of the last week. The removal of vital services is seen by those held there as part of a wider campaign to move them to another detention centre on the island.

Behrouz Boochani, an Iranian journalist and refugee on the island, has warned that there will be a “big tragedy” if Australia forcibly removes the inhabitants, describing the living conditions there as “like a nightmare.”’

Read more: ‘Like a nightmare’: Refugees protest conditions at Australian island detention centre 

‘Let’s say you like to eat chicken and you’re all right with that. You’ve heard about arsenic in chicken feed and chicken imported to China and back again, but you’re still amenable to that. Chances are you probably wouldn’t be OK with why U.S. factory farm chicken must be washed in chlorine.

Recently, the UK was shocked to find out that it had “suddenly” embodied U.S. factory farms. This revelation, along with the “disturbing prospect of chlorine-washed chickens from the US going on sale in British shops in a post-Brexit trade deal” must have sparked a frenzy because now there are feverish, British reports of “America’s Frankenchickens.” America’s chickens are triple the size of their 1950s counterparts.

These chickens – and we’re using the term loosely – are in compact spaces, are fed to the point that they cannot stand, indiscriminately given antibiotics, and have flesh that rots off their bodies while they are still alive! (Why would anyone feed this to their children?) Additionally, the animals are killed in a variety of terrifying ways, especially if they are of no use. One undercover video revealed a farm owner bludgeoning a chicken with a metal rod.’

Read more: The Lurid Reason America’s Franken-Chickens Must Be Washed With Chlorine

‘Deep reforms to the state pension affecting more than a million women have saved the Treasury £5bn a year but also “substantially” increased poverty rates, a major new study has revealed.

The analysis sets out the impact of pushing women to work into their sixties, with their households stripped of £74-a-week worth of benefits.

Those hit branded the report from the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies shocking, while opposition politicians called it “grim reading” and claimed the Government had “catastrophically mismanaged” reform.

It comes as Chancellor Philip Hammond prepares for his Budget, which is expected to indicate that, despite years of swingeing cuts, Britain’s deficit may not be abolished for another decade.’

Read more: State pension reforms hit women for £5.1 billion ‘substantially’ increasing poverty, major IFS study finds

Rough sleepers in Oxford who keep possessions in doorways could face fines of up to £2,500 for being ‘detrimental’ to the area.

Legal notices have been attached to piles of bags in the city centre, which belong to homeless people.

The Labour-controlled council issued a community protection notice, which orders people to stop leaving their belongings unattended to avoid causing an obstruction.

They warn that they could be prosecuted by the Labour-controlled council for breaking antisocial behaviour laws.

The notices read: ‘Oxford city council is satisfied that your conduct is having a detrimental effect of a persistent or continuing nature on the quality of life of those in the locality.’

Read more: Rough sleepers in Oxford facing £2,500 fines if they leave possessions in doorways for being ‘detrimental’ to the local area

‘Saturday, July 22 marks the 30-year anniversary of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the federal government’s first major legislative response to homelessness. One important—and controversial—section of the law requires states to remove educational barriers experienced by homeless children and youth, out of recognition that many homeless children cannot enroll in school for a host of bureaucratic and logistical reasons.

Three decades later, there are 1.3 million homeless students in U.S. schools, an increase of 160 percent since 1987. And there are hundreds of thousands more homeless children who have already dropped out, or are still too young to be enrolled in school.

A new policy brief published by Liz Cohen of the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness and Barbara Duffield, of the SchoolHouse Connection, looks at where progress has been made at addressing the intersections of homelessness and education, and where work—lots of it—remains to be done.’

Read more: Making Student Homelessness a Visible Issue