Holiday lets are ripping Scotland’s communities apart. In some places, there are now more holiday lets than normal homes for rent. That means families with nowhere to go are forced out of the places they’ve called home all their lives. But it doesn’t have to be like this. The Scottish government are asking the public for views on what to do about holiday lets, and together we can make sure we win real protections for our communities. The big lobbyists protecting companies like Airbnb will be working double-time to stop any new regulations that could hit their astronomic profits. It’s down to us to drown them out.

Short term lets are spreading across London, taking homes away from local renters, preventing people from living in the communities where they grew up, and pushing up rents. Hostmaker’s distasteful tube ad is undermining the Mayor of London’s plans to make housing affordable in London, by encouraging landlords to kick out their tenants to create holiday homes. We want the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to ban Hostmaker ads from all Transport For London spaces Every day millions of people see these ads. Our Mayor-run transport infrastructure should be promoting organisations like Generation Rent and local renter unions, who are working to fix the housing crisis, rather than companies like Hostmaker who are actively making things worse.

About "Zara" "Zara" is a recovering survivor of both Domestic violence and trafficking perpetrated by her daughters father. She is a British national who approached Brighton and Hove city council as homeless following the decision to flee her previous address known to her perpetrator and the trafficking ring he is affiliated with, after being turned down by refuge. She presented with ten years worth of evidence including her perpetrators firearms convictions. Despite all this the council have advised they wish to make "Zara" and her baby intentionally homeless. This experience is not new to her; having been intermittently homeless for ten years as a result of her experiences, perpetuated by the systemic refusal to acknowledge domestic violence as a cause of homelessness, she is a veteran of being at the receiving end of local authority discrimination, minimization, denial and eradication of what she has been thorough and thus her plight for safe housing continues. "Zara" is not a solitary statistic. Across the board domestic violence and trafficking survivors are being denied safe housing upon fleeing. With refuges facing ever shrinking funding cuts and local authorities selling off housing stock, survivors are at the tail end of a regime that fails to address the risk posed to lives when refused the means to escape. A drastic reform is needed of the public sector for housing, starting with BHCC who currently have the highest number of women sleeping rough nationwide.

The sleeper units will provide shelter, warmth & safety and allow frontline services to provide vital support plus help accommodate people into permanent homes and instead of letting people sleep rough due to lack of safe temporary accommodation

Hackney Council is trying to force Margaret into a hostel that is not fit for the needs of her family. Margaret's daughter and mother are both disabled and require 24/7 care, but this move will mean Margaret cannot care for them because of practical issues like rooms being far apart in the hostel. She would find it impossible to give them both the constant care they need. Margaret is in extreme distress. The shared kitchen in the hostel would also be dangerous given Margaret's daughters severe allergies. Margaret has been living in temporary accommodation in Homerton, for more than 3 years. The block of flats is due to be demolished and the council wants it cleared by the end of the month. The move would be extremely distressing for Margaret and her family. Hackney Council must promise not to force Margaret out of Marian Court until they can offer her permanent accommodation that meets her family's needs.

Castle Mill Stream is a poorly managed backwater of the Thames in Oxford, a stretch of which is owned by Network Rail, who have no use for the land. However, it currently provides a much-needed home for those who live and work in a city in the midst of a housing crisis. These individuals are currently under threat of eviction, and no promises have been made by any organisation to properly manage the area as residential moorings. Please show your support by signing this petition. To find out more, read our story below. ---- Our Story: We are five resident boaters at Castle Mill Stream that runs alongside the Oxford Canal in Jericho. One of us has lived here 19 years and three of us for 4-6 years. We have been informed that the stretch of bank we are moored on (from the south end of William Lucy Way to opposite Combe Road) belongs to Network Rail. For years they have ignored it, but under pressure from Oxford City Council they put up signs on February 12 and attached letters to our boats on February 21 warning of eviction. In a statement the City Council have welcomed their action, linking boats on Castle Mill Stream to a long list of anti-social behaviours which they say the area has seen "in recent years". They are presumably including a much wider area than where we are moored. Only one incident has occurred on this stretch in the last two years - the presumed arson of an uninhabited plastic boat this winter. The fire service put it out but no-one cleared up the mess until we took half a ton of debris from the burnt hull and from a sunken boat to the dump. We agree that Castle Mill Stream requires proper management to prevent a cycle of abandoned boats appearing. However, we believe that the area and surrounding community is better off for the presence of permanent residential moorings. Stationary live-aboard boats provide the area with individuals who have a vested interest in the safety and upkeep of this otherwise dark corner of central Oxford. Charging mooring fees will prevent boat abandonment and make any anti-social behaviour less likely. The City Council have talked about possible future moorings on this site, perhaps financed by Canal & River Trust, but we are sceptical about how long this could take. We therefore believe that these moorings are best managed by the boaters themselves. This would ensure the area does not fall into further disrepair and attract more abandoned boats while waiting for C&RT to take action. It would also keep moorings affordable, preventing any further strain on the housing situation in Oxford. Official sites such as the Hythe Bridge Arm and the Agenda 21 moorings in North Oxford began as unofficial moorings. We have formed ourselves into a non-profit company, have applied to Network Rail to buy the land, and are preparing a planning application for residential moorings, including floating pontoons, a water tap and a sewage disposal point, all to be financed by our mooring fees.

Brighton & Hove is in the top ten local authorities in the country for numbers of rough sleepers. These are just the ones you can see. There are thousands more people living in tents, cars, boats, hostels, and emergency and temporary accommodation. All people, homeless or not, are free and equal in dignity and rights. But in truth, rough sleepers are treated at best as a problem and at worst as a nuisance to be cleared away. The Homeless Bill of Rights (www.homelessrights.org.uk) tries to make human rights real for those of us who are unfortunate enough to be homeless, by giving them respect, dignity and help in their struggle to survive. The most important right is the right to housing; but at the very least no-one, ever, should be forced to sleep rough. It has been adopted by six European cities including Barcelona. We want Brighton & Hove to become the first British city to adopt the Homeless Bill of Rights.

Children in London too poor to play outside with their friends? According to one housing developer - that’s the way it should be. A multi-million pound housing development in London is segregating children based on how much money their parents have. With separate, smaller play areas for children living in affordable housing, these children are blocked from using the main play area the richer children enjoy. London is already segregated enough without developers making it even worse. A children's playground on an estate is a really important space, especially for families in flats. My two children would always be playing with other children in the courtyard of the estate where I live. They formed life-long friendships there. All children should be free to play with their friends - not shut out because they live in affordable housing.

We lost our loved ones, our neighbours and our homes in the Grenfell Tower fire. One of the things that makes the heartbreak so difficult is knowing that some of us raised concerns about safety before the fire but we were ignored. And today, over a year and a half since the tragedy, people living in social housing are still so often ignored and mistreated when they raise issues. With your help we want to change this. We are calling for the Government to create a new housing regulator that works for tenants. Please sign this petition to support us. The current housing regulator, is focused is on keeping housing associations in profit. It’s not enough. We need a new independent regulator that puts people before profit. After the banking crisis the Government set up the Financial Conduct Authority to look after consumers interests and after the food crisis it set up the Food Standards Agency to protect customers. It’s time for the same approach for housing. This summer the Government will publish its plans for the future of social housing in a White Paper, so we have just a few months to send a clear message: People living in social housing deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. They need a regulator that will fight for them, not just for their landlords. Please help us, sign this petition and let’s send a message that Grenfell has not been forgotten and make sure that the loss of 72 lives leads to real change for people across the country.

West Sussex council’s proposal to cut help for rough sleepers by £4m will have drastic consequences - more lives will be lost. By 2020, the money the council spends on housing support services for rough sleepers, victims of domestic abuse, care leavers, and vulnerable elderly people, will decrease from £6.3 million to £2.3 million. Years of under-investment by West Sussex County Council in social housing, social care and mental health services have resulted in increasing numbers of homeless people, many sleeping rough in parks, shop doorways and in beach shelters. At a time when funding desperately needs to be increased, West Sussex County Council is proposing even greater cuts. The council needs to reverse its decision and make sure these services are protected for the future.

Renters in Scotland are suffering. Across the country, sky-high rents are forcing people into poverty and far too many tenants are living in slum-like conditions. We used to have rent controls to protect people from exactly this situation - until Thatcher scrapped them in the 80s - and now it’s time to bring them back. In 2016, the Scottish Government brought in so-called “Rent Pressure Zones” to try to tackle high rents, but these have failed. No council has been able to use them, and the evidence suggests it wouldn’t help even if they did. Now we need to bring in proper, nationwide rent controls. You can read more about the campaign and what rent controls would mean here: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17447397.campaigners-call-for-scotland-wide-rent-controls-to-help-tenants/

This month, 56 desperately needed social rented homes are due to be sold-off at auction by housing associations, so called 'social landlords'. 15 being sold by Housing association, Peabody, including 17 Robinson Road, a refurbished 2-bedroom home in Bethnal Green, with a reserve price of £730,000. Right now, there are 4,500 people on the Tower Hamlets waiting list for a home like this. They're the people Peabody are supposed to help. Last year, Peabody made a profit of £175 million, while paying their Chief Executive £278,750.