Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Dan Wilson Craw

Generation Rent @generationrent.bsky.social · 8h

Last night, the House of Lords blocked attempts to weaken the Renters’ Rights Bill, a huge win for renters.

The Bill now heads to the House of Commons for final approval before Royal Assent.

More here ➡️ www.generationrent.org/2025/10/15/r...

Renters’ Rights Bill on verge of becoming law - Generation Rent

Last night (14/10/25), Peers in the House of Lords voted to reject several pro-landlord amendments to the Renters’ Rights Bill, which would have weakened new protections for renters. The Bill […]

www.generationrent.org

5 13

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 9h

The big test will be when they're driving down a residential street with cars parked on both sides so only room for one car - and another car is coming from the other direction. Will robotaxi flash its headlights and let it pass, or plough on and hope the other car tucks in?

Reposted by Dan Wilson Craw

Renters' Reform Coalition @rentersreformco.bsky.social · 13h

🚨GREAT NEWS FOR RENTERS🚨

Last night, we defeated last-ditch amendments that would have weakened tenants' rights and shifted power back towards landlords.

The Bill now just needs sign-off from the Commons (and the King) before becoming the Renters' Rights Act!

1 8 24

Reposted by Dan Wilson Craw

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 1d

An example of the government not having a project: only yesterday the government was trumpeting new measures to make it easier to build things. We'll work out who actually builds stuff later on.

András Forgács W @andraswf.bsky.social · 1d

Well this will certainly do it www.gov.uk/government/n...

Migrants will be required to pass A Level standard of English

Migrants will be required to pass tough new English language requirements under a law introduced in Parliament today.

www.gov.uk

31 45 190

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 1d

And another vote saw an attempt to weaken security of tenure for postgraduate and mature students... also defeated!

And that's it for the Lords - Bill goes back to the Commons for a final vote so we'll have a Renters' Rights Act very soon!

1 4

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 1d

First vote in today's House of Lords debate on Renters Rights Bill sees the government defeat an amendment that would weaken safeguards against landlords abusing the eviction ground to sell the property. Very good news but very close - 11 votes in it. Still a few problematic amendments to go...

1 5

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 1d

Not sure voters who care about housing will care if the target is hit - so few of them will live in a new home. Test is whether rents become more affordable/it becomes easier to buy. Would be nice to have a proper strategy that gets into what the government thinks success looks like beyond the 1.5m

Reposted by Dan Wilson Craw

the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 3d

In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”

Members of the force's sports squad, responsible
- among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.
Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.
Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.
A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.
"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."
Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."

55 1.2K 4.2K

Reposted by Dan Wilson Craw

Joseph Elliott @jelliott94.bsky.social · 2d

Calling housing academics, researchers and economists - we've put out a tender for research on private landlord profits; how substantial are they, how are they distributed, from rent vs. capital etc.

Apply at the link below! Budget up to £40k including vat.

Please reshare!!

1 13 18

Reposted by Dan Wilson Craw

Generation Rent @generationrent.bsky.social · 2d

It's Renters' Rights Awareness Week! Every day we have a webinar, covering topics like upcoming changes to evictions, disrepair, deposits and even how you claim back rent.

We're also running a prize draw to win some amazing books about housing - don't miss out! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/rentersrig...

Help us fight for a better deal for renters

When you're a renter, knowledge is power. We're giving away the latest books about housing to promote and fund our renters rights webinars

www.crowdfunder.co.uk

1 12 5

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 3d

Here's the latest on that posting to policy pipeline btw.

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 3d

Now the algo is whatever housing stuff the people I follow have been talking about - plus a load of right wing chat and random Nazis

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 3d

As someone who checks in only 2-3 times a day, I liked how the algo would normally serve up big news that people I followed were talking about but the chat had dried up by the time I logged on. On the live timeline I found it was easy to just get loads of people retweeting lots of the same thing

1 1

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 3d

At this point these are the most satisfying ones

Wordle 1,576 6/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

2

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 4d

Picking an issue to push on X is harder - reckon you could have success with something that is simple and anger-inducing enough to get attention, and can also unite left and (at least some on the) right.

Mind, I have noticed a petition for electoral reform promoted on X recently, with 44k sigs 4/4

1

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 4d

But you have to pick your issue well. Over here, you need something that will get centrist dads and policy wonks enthused. Over on X left wing content still gets traction (at least for me) but don't think that's as influential as the right wingers banging on about benefits/crime 3/n

1

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 4d

I get the feeling that over the years the type of people who have migrated to Bluesky have got more jaded and sceptical that people power can do much, even as the posting to policy pipeline has developed over on X. But there's a lot of untapped potential 2/n

1 2

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 4d

Glad Jonn has written this. As a campaigner, I found Twitter getting decreasingly useful to get people signing petitions and writing to MPs, i.e. when posts with links started getting downgraded. Because Bluesky doesn't do this there's a lot of potential for campaigns to build up support 1/n

Jonn Elledge @jonnelledge.bsky.social · 4d

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it is still shaping policy. So were we all wrong to leave?

Was the left wrong to leave X for BlueSky?

The platform formerly known as Twitter may be horrible, but it's still shaping policy

www.newstatesman.com

1 2

Reposted by Dan Wilson Craw

Generation Rent @generationrent.bsky.social · 5d

“We’ve seen over a generation, a huge house price increase”

Watch our Deputy Chief Executive, @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social, explain Stamp Duty reform, and what it would mean for private renters

👇

2 1

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 5d

A good rule of thumb is if people aren't frothing about his column on social media on a Thursday/Saturday, it's probably worth reading

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 5d

Pleasure to talk about the pros and cons of abolishing stamp duty on #r4today just now - glad @danneidle.bsky.social was also on to talk about the solutions with a lot more gravitas than I would have managed

5

Reposted by Dan Wilson Craw

Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 6d

I really don't know what to do about a situation where a plurality of the group that (rightly!) takes up most government spending thinks that it is unrepresented in politics.

Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 6d

Hollow laughter

59 100 520

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 7d

There are good reasons to scrap stamp duty but you need to make up the revenue somewhere - eg replace it and council tax with an annual tax based on proportion of home's value

3

Dan Wilson Craw @danwilsoncraw.bsky.social · 7d

And of course, the last time we had zero stamp duty and no replacement was during the pandemic, and house prices surged, pricing more people out of home ownership

Chaminda Jayanetti @cjayanetti.bsky.social · 7d

lol abolishing stamp duty is a policy that will prove hugely popular with the wonk set before absolutely blowing up the moment they announce what would replace it - or, alternatively, how they'd fund the lost revenue

1

Reposted by Dan Wilson Craw

Will - Absolute Shower 🇺🇦 @showerabsolute.bsky.social · 8d

The press should be doorstepping the people who funded these repeated complaints and lawsuits. Make them explain themselves

Elle @centristmum.bsky.social · 8d

Sometimes you think 'oh it can't really be that bad can it' and then you click on the link and it turns out it is exactly that bad www.bbc.com/news/article...

Council demolishes play area after noise complaints

Parents in a Derbyshire town say their children are 'devastated' they have lost the facility.

www.bbc.com

5 16 56