Latest news with #housingreform
SBS Australia
a day ago
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Advocates urge reform of WA tenancy laws
Advocates urge reform of WA tenancy laws Published 23 July 2025, 8:43 am Western Australia has some of the weakest renter protections in the country and is now one of just two jurisdictions that still allow no-fault evictions. Housing advocates are urging reform while the WA Government says it's doing everything it can to build more social and affordable homes. The stakes could not be higher for one single mother in Perth who is now preparing to live in her car.
Free Malaysia Today
3 days ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
‘Pay-as-you-use' mulled at new affordable housing schemes
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (third from left) and housing and local government minister Nga Kor Ming (left) looking at a model of the Rumah Bakat Madani project at its launch in Seberang Jaya, Penang, on Saturday. (Bernama pic) PETALING JAYA : The housing and local government ministry is exploring a 'pay-as-you-use' model for maintenance fees in future affordable housing developments, as part of housing sector reforms. Its minister, Nga Kor Ming, said this is part of efforts to elevate the real estate industry and promote more equitable access to housing for all Malaysians. Speaking to reporters at the Kuala Lumpur Architecture Week (KLAW) 2025 today, Nga said the ministry plans to introduce a system that allows residents to pay maintenance fees based on actual usage of shared facilities. 'Under this proposed model, residents will receive access cards that track their monthly usage of shared facilities. 'We are starting with the Rumah Bakat Madani initiative led by Skyworld Pearlmont in Penang, which features a pay-per-use clubhouse with an infinity pool, pickleball and badminton courts, a children's playground and gyms,' Bernama reported him as saying. Nga said the concept will serve as a reference for future public housing projects. 'These projects may also include vertical schools to provide vulnerable communities better access to education,' he said. He said the ministry also plans to engage private sector players to develop industrialised building system facilities, aiming to expand the use of modular construction methods such as prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction.
WIRED
5 days ago
- Politics
- WIRED
Why It's Taking LA So Long to Rebuild After the Wildfires
Jul 19, 2025 7:00 AM Reforming California's environmental rules is only a small step to rebuilding Los Angeles after the fires in January. Sisters sit together on the front porch of what remains of their home on January 19, 2025, in Altadena, California. Photograph:This story originally appeared on Vox and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. In the wake of the record-breaking wildfires in Los Angeles in January—some of the most expensive and destructive blazes in history—one of the first things California governor Gavin Newsom did was to sign an executive order suspending environmental rules around rebuilding. The idea was that by waiving permitting regulations and reviews under the California Coastal Act and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), homeowners and builders could start cleaning up, putting up walls, and getting people back into houses faster. But that raised a key question for housing advocates: Could California do something similar for the whole state? Earlier this month, Newsom took a step in that direction, signing two bills that would exempt most urban housing from environmental reviews and make it easier for cities to increase housing by changing zoning laws. Newsom also signed another executive order that suspends some local permitting laws and building codes for fire-afflicted communities with the aim of further speeding up reconstruction. Housing reforms can't come soon enough for the City of Angels. Blown by hurricane-strength Santa Ana winds over an unusually dry, grassy landscape, the wildfires that tore through LA burned almost 48,000 acres and damaged or destroyed more than 16,000 structures, including more than 9,500 single-family homes, 1,200 duplexes, and 600 apartments in one of the most housing-starved regions of the country. Los Angeles is a critical case study for housing for the whole state, a test of whether the Democratic-controlled government can coordinate its conflicting political bases—unions, environmental groups, housing advocates—with a desperate need for more homes. Revising the state's environmental laws was seen by some observers as a sign that the Golden State was finally seeing the light. But despite the relaxed rules, progress in LA has been sluggish. More than 800 homeowners in areas affected by wildfires applied for rebuilding permits as of July 7, according to the Los Angeles Times. Fewer than 200 have received the green light, however. The City of Los Angeles takes about 55 days on average to approve a wildfire rebuild, and the broader Los Angeles County takes even longer. (Los Angeles County has a dashboard to track permitting approvals in unincorporated areas.) 'LA's process is super slow, so that's not surprising,' said Elisa Paster, a managing partner at Rand Paster Nelson, a firm based in Los Angeles that specializes in land use law. 'Anecdotally, we've heard that a lot of people have decided they don't want to go through the process of rebuilding in LA because it is quite onerous.' Now, half a year after the embers have died down, it's clear that changing the rules isn't enough. Advocates for CEQA say the 55-year-old law is really a scapegoat for bigger, more intractable housing problems. Other factors, like more expensive construction materials and labor shortages, are still driving up housing construction costs, regardless of permitting speeds. And some environmental groups worry that the rush to rebuild everything as it was could recreate the conditions that led to the blazes in the first place, a dangerous prospect in an area where wildfire risks are only growing. How CEQA Reforms Can and Can't Help Communities Harmed by Wildfires CEQA is one of California's tentpole environmental laws, signed by then governor Ronald Reagan in 1970. It requires that state and local governments preemptively look for any potential environmental harms from a construction project, like water pollution, threats to endangered species, and later, greenhouse gas emissions. Developers need to disclose these issues and take steps to avoid them. The law also allows the public to weigh in on new developments. In the years since, CEQA has been blamed as a barrier to new construction. Many critics see it as a cynical tool wielded to prevent new housing construction in wealthy communities, even being invoked to challenge highway closures and new parks on environmental grounds. It's one of the villains of the 'abundance' movement that advocates for cutting red tape to build more homes and clean energy. However, CEQA isn't necessarily the gatekeeper to rebuilding single-family homes after wildfires, according to Matthew Baker, policy director at the Planning and Conservation League, a nonprofit that helped shepherd CEQA in the first place. For one thing, CEQA already has broad exemptions for replacing and rebuilding structures and new construction of 'small' structures like single-family homes. 'Our general take is that the executive orders around revoking environmental review and environmental regulations around the rebuilding [after the fires] did little to nothing beyond what was already in existing law,' Baker said. He added that the vast majority of projects that face CEQA review get the go-ahead, and less than 2 percent of proposals face litigation. An aerial view shows homes burned in the Eaton Fire on February 05, 2025, in Altadena, California. U.S. Photograph:But the mere threat of a lawsuit and the precautions taken to avoid one can become a significant hurdle on its own. 'CEQA can be an expensive and lengthy process, especially for large or complicated projects. This is true even if there is not litigation,' according to a 2024 report from California's Little Hoover Commission, the state's independent oversight agency. 'Preparation of an Environmental Impact Report under CEQA can take a year or longer and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even, in some cases, more than $1 million.' In addition, CEQA does come into play for people who want to make more extensive changes to their property as they rebuild, like if they want to expand their floorspace more than 10 percent beyond their original floor plan. The law is also triggered by broader wildfire risk-reduction initiatives, namely brush clearance and controlled burns, as well as infrastructure upgrades like putting power lines underground to prevent fire ignitions or installing more pipelines and cisterns for water to help with firefighting. Exempting these projects could help communities build fire resilience faster. For multifamily homes like duplexes and apartment buildings, CEQA can be an obstacle, too, if the developer wants to rebuild with more units. 'We have multifamily buildings in the Palisades that had rent-controlled units, and what we've been hearing from some of these property owners is like, 'Yeah, sure. I had 20 rent-controlled units there before, but I can't afford to just rebuild 20.' Those people want to go back and build 50 units, 20 of which could be rent-controlled, or all of which are rent-controlled.' By bypassing CEQA, higher-density housing has an easier path to completion. Environmental Regulations Aren't the Only Barriers to Rebuilding Rebuilding after fires is always going to be expensive. Your home may have been built and sold in the 1970s, but you'll have to pay 2025 prices for materials and labor when you rebuild. California already faces some of the highest housing costs in the country and a shortage of construction workers. The Trump administration is pushing the price tag higher with tariffs on components like lumber and its campaign to deport people. About 41 percent of workers in California's construction industry are immigrants, and 14 percent are undocumented. But even before they can rebuild, one of the biggest challenges for people who have lost their homes is simply becoming whole after a loss. 'From the clients that I've spoken to, they've had to argue with their insurance company to get full replacement value or reasonable compensation, and that's where they're getting stuck,' said David Hertz, an architect based in Santa Monica. On top of the tedious claims process, insurance companies in California have been dropping some of their customers in high-fire-risk areas, leaving them no option besides the FAIR Plan, the state's high-priced, limited-coverage insurer of last resort. But after the multibillion-dollar losses from the Los Angeles fires, the FAIR Plan had to collect an additional $1 billion from its member companies, a move that will raise property insurance prices. People who can't get property insurance can't get a mortgage from most lenders. There's also the concern of exactly where and how homes are rebuilt. In 2008, California updated its building codes to make structures more resistant to wildfires, but bringing burned-down old homes to new standards in high-fire-risk areas adds to the timeline and the price tag. 'There's this tension between all of us wanting to have people be able to rebuild their homes in their communities, and there's the question of 'Are we just going to build back the same thing in the same unsafe place? Are we going to try to do things better?' Baker said. All the while, wildfires are becoming more destructive. Wildfires are a natural part of Southern California's landscape, but more people are crowding into areas that are primed to burn, and the danger zones are widening. That increases the chances of a wildfire ignition and makes the ensuing blazes more damaging. With average temperatures rising, California is seeing more aggressive swings between severe rainfall and drought. The 2025 Los Angeles fires were preceded in 2024 by one of the wettest winters in the region's history, followed by one of the hottest summers on record, and bookended by one of the driest starts to winter. It created the ideal conditions for ample dry grasses and chaparral that fueled the infernos. 'The question is, how does one really exist within a natural system that's designed to burn?' Hertz said. Reducing wildfire risk on a wider scale requires coordination between neighbors. For example, Hertz said that in many of the communities that burned, there are likely many residents who won't come back. Neighbors could coordinate to buy up and swap vacant land parcels to create a defensible space with fire-resistant trees like oak to serve as fire breaks and water storage to help respond to future blazes. Hertz himself leads a community brigade, trained volunteers who work to reduce wildfire risk in their neighborhoods. He also cautioned that while there's a lot of well-deserved pushback against regulations like CEQA, the reasoning behind it remains sound. Development without any environmental considerations could put more homes in the path of danger and destroy the ecosystems that make California such an attractive place to live. 'I think there's a balance,' Hertz said. 'Nature doesn't have its own voice.' At the same time, without speeding up the pace at which California restores the homes that were lost and builds new ones, the housing crisis will only get worse. The state will become unlivable for many residents. Long after the burn scars fade and new facades are erected, communities will be altered permanently.
Telegraph
07-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Landlords ‘looting' millions of leaseholders under Labour
Labour is allowing England's five million leaseholders to be 'looted' after stalling on its pledge to abolish the centuries-old system, campaigners have warned. A series of reforms aimed at boosting leaseholder powers have been unveiled by the Government, but critics argue they will fail to deliver change. Under new rules, leaseholders will be able to more easily challenge extortionate service charges, which they are required to pay to cover the upkeep of shared areas in their building. The new proposals – labelled 'performative nonsense' by campaigners – come after Labour previously rowed back on a commitment to abolish leasehold within 100 days of taking power. Housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, said the party still plans to bring the 'feudal system' to an end, but a timeline on the pledge has not been made clear. The smaller reforms have been proposed in a new consultation unveiled by Angela Rayner's Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It says leaseholders will receive a standardised service charge documentation each year which will spell out clear and detailed information about how their rates are calculated and spent. This is hoped to 'make it easier for them to challenge unreasonable bills, and potentially save money where expenses are unjustified'. Further reforms are aimed at stopping leaseholders who have successfully challenged their bill from having to automatically pay for landlords' litigation costs. Property managers will also be forced to qualify as professional practitioners for the first time. Mr Pennycook said: 'This bold package of reforms will arm leaseholders with greater rights and protections, and empower them to challenge poor practice and unreasonable charges and fees.' But Harry Scoffin, of the campaign group Free Leaseholders, said the proposals do not go far enough and leaseholders will continue to be 'looted' by landlords. He said: 'There is this endless number of consultations. The Government is investing all of this energy on tweaking the current system, rather than abolishing leasehold. We will continue to be looted. 'It's a real worry. Leaseholders are exhausted, and do not want to spend years of their life becoming serial litigators challenging their landlords, which is what would happen here. 'The Government says the reforms will strengthen the arm of leaseholders, but this won't work. These tribunals aren't friendly and leaseholders are sometimes up against KCs, literally the creme de la creme lawyers in the land.' Posting on X, Jay Silva wrote: 'More dithering. Why do we need more consultations? How many more of them do successive governments want?' Another user labelled the proposals 'performative nonsense'. They said: 'You said you would abolish leasehold and have not. This is more stalling.' Last October, Mr Pennycook warned that leasehold reform could take as long as five years, describing it as a 'whole of Parliament commitment'. In its manifesto, Labour said it would 'ban new leasehold flats and ensure commonhold is the default tenure'. The party went on to reiterate this promise in the King's Speech, also promising to regulate ground rents and to 'act quickly' to implement its reforms. In May 2023, Lisa Nandy, the former shadow housing secretary, said a future Labour government would bring forward legislation to abolish leasehold within 100 days. But in April, the party quietly dropped this pledge. The Leaseholders Charity said the Government's latest proposals – which are out for consultation until the end of September – were announced 'with as much enthusiasm as a visit to the dentist'. There are 4.8 million leasehold properties in England, equivalent to a fifth of the country's housing stock. In 2023-24, leaseholders paid an average annual service charge of £1,720, but some costs spiralled to five figures.
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
With Environmental Regulatory Reform, California Gov. Gavin Newsom Finally Does Something Substantial
Gov. Gavin Newsom isn't afraid to step into the political fray when it comes to standing up to President Donald Trump over national issues that impact California. He's not always wrong when he sues the administration or speaks out against, say, ICE raids in Los Angeles. But most of those high-profile actions seem designed to burnish his national reputation. For your own safety, please don't stand between him and a television camera. Newsom would have a better national-leadership case, however, had he strategically arm-twisted the state's Democratic-controlled Legislature to pass controversial measures that address California's long-simmering problems of homelessness, traffic congestion, the high cost of living, crime, and sky-high housing costs. The best way to prove the wisdom of the California Way is to, you know, actually run the state in a stellar manner. But maybe he is learning. As various news sources reported last week, the governor had tied his signing of a budget deal by requiring the Legislature to pass reforms to the state's "landmark" California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)—the 1970 law that has mired construction projects in regulation, environmental impact reports and litigation (or threats of it). The details of the measure were in flux late last week, but it was pitched as being far more aggressive than past housing reforms. Sure enough, Newsom succeeded. Just in time for the July 1 budget-signing deadline, the legislature overwhelmingly passed the measure, which ended up as two bills. They exempt "nine types of projects from environmental reviews: child care centers, health clinics, food banks, farmworker housing, broadband, wildfire prevention, water infrastructure, public parks or trails and, notably, advanced manufacturing," per a CalMatters report. One of the bills also "restricts legal challenges under CEQA by narrowing which documents courts can consider." The measures were based on several existing proposals, including Senate Bill 607, which affirms the Legislature's intent "to make changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to ensure the state meets its infrastructure needs and is more affordable for all Californians, as specified, without compromising environmental protections," according to the legislative analysis. Lawmakers in May stripped away specific exemptions, turning it into a non-substantive bill in the face of opposition from the usual suspects. Without Newsom's efforts, major CEQA reform would have died on the vine. Another late-breaking housing bill was under consideration as part of the budget, but not subject to Newsom's ultimatum—but the Legislature caved in to union demands. The Sacramento Bee reports this bill was roughly based on another measure that "allows developers to bypass CEQA review if they agree to pay a certain minimum wage to construction workers." Mandating wage boosts drives up the cost of housing construction and weakens the usefulness of these deregulations, but it was an attempt to lessen the degree to which unions use CEQA to slow construction projects to extract concessions. Newsom's failure to overcome union opposition here is a disappointment, but doesn't tarnish an otherwise noteworthy effort. The Bee interviewed Capitol insiders who cannot recall a budget ever before being held up to secure passage of a single non-budget-related bill. More of this, please. Even sweeter: The governor and lawmakers brushed off the overheated objections of the environmental community. Instead of folding, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, rebuked the "extreme, unfounded, melodramatic statements" from environmental groups, as CalMatters noted. Lawmakers routinely gripe about CEQA, but they never do anything to fix it beyond adding a limited streamlining or exemption provision (especially when it comes to sports arenas). The pro-housing YIMBY Law (Yes In My Back Yard) produced a report showing the myriad laws that have reduced CEQA impediments for housing have produced few real-world results. That's no surprise given that they don't go far enough, rarely apply to market-rate housing and always include union giveaways. Legislators are finally pushing harder for broader exemptions. I rarely agree with them on non-housing issues, but Wiener and Assembly member Buffy Wicks (D–Oakland) deserve praise for doggedly pursuing the issue. And with Newsom using this nuclear option to bring this bill across the finish line, we are finally seeing progress. I feared the final version might be toothless, but it appears substantive. Isn't it time, however, to reform CEQA for every type of project? It might seem odd that progressives have embraced the pro-housing religion, but consider a study from the Holland & Knight law firm. It found 49 percent of CEQA lawsuits target governmental projects, with infill projects also a particular target. "CEQA litigation abuse is primarily the domain of Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) opponents and special interests such as competitors and labor unions seeking non-environmental outcomes," the study added. Basically, progressives are finding their own objectives threatened by CEQA abuse. Gov. Newsom is learning that if he wants to look tough—and help address a serious state problem—there no downside for him to use his political capital in such a way. This column was first published in The Orange County Register. The post With Environmental Regulatory Reform, California Gov. Gavin Newsom Finally Does Something Substantial appeared first on
