Latest news with #HousingCommittee
BBC News
9 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
What happens now after Guernsey's general election?
The votes have been counted, the posters are coming down and we now know the 38 next members of Guernsey's new government. So what comes next? New deputies will first elect the presidents and members of States committees, deciding who is responsible for what in a series of secret bidding to lead committees will make their pitch for the job in the States chamber and respond to questions from will then write their preferred choice on a piece of paper, which will be collected and counted by parliamentary officials. What are Guernsey's committees and what do they do? Guernsey's system of government is made up of one senior committee, principal committees and several other committee boards, authorities and committees include the new Committee for Housing, which the current States voted to introduce for the next political term. It takes over the responsibility for housing which is currently divided between three different other committees include:Policy & Resources (P&R), which is responsible for public finances and co-ordinating policy across the StatesEconomic Development, which promotes business, handles regulation and air and sea linksEducation, Sport & Culture, which looks after schools, heritage and museums, arts, and sporting and civic eventsEmployment & Social Security, which administers benefits such as pensions and income supportEnvironment & Infrastructure, which manages waste policy, roads, coastal defences, renewable energy, agriculture and public transportHealth & Social Care, which delivers medical services from emergencies to welfare and support for children and adultsHome Affairs, which oversees the courts and crime, immigration and population, and emergency planningOther boards include the States Assembly and Constitution Committee, Overseas Aids & Development, Scrutiny Management, Transport Licensing and the States Trading Supervisory Board (STSB), which oversees the ports and public companies such as the dairy and the States' next meeting on 15 July, members will debate the accounts for 2024, which have not been fully published the outgoing president of P&R has announced the States spent £44m more than it brought in last year. When will the committees be chosen? On 1 July the president of P&R, the most senior committee in the States will be chosen, after members are sworn in as deputies at the same next day the four other members of P&R will be elected, with anyone able to stand from the floor of the Friday 4 July elections will take place for the presidents of each of the principal committees, alongside bodies such as the Development and Planning the weekend, the 38 deputies and two Alderney Representatives, who make up the States of Deliberation, will return to elect who sits on each of those committees. What happens to outgoing deputies? The 2025 election is the first one where deputies will receive one month's basic salary if they fail to be re-elected following a review of States members pay in eight deputies who have decided to stand down from their posts will not receive the who have not been re-elected will continue their duties until 1 July when the new deputies are sworn into office.
Al-Ahram Weekly
3 days ago
- Business
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Parliament housing committee approves government-drafted bill on reforming rent law
Parliament's Housing Committee approved the draft amendment of the government-drafted bill on the old rent law on Tuesday, extending the termination period for contracts subject to the law for residential purposes to 7 years instead of 5. The Housing Committee's approval is preliminary, and the draft will subsequently be submitted for a final vote in a parliament's plenary session expected to be held later this month. The proposed amendments to the rent laws 49/1977 and 136/1981 have recently sparked a heated social debate. Landlords sought to minimize the termination period and increase rent, while tenants pressed for the opposite. The Housing Committee passed a 10-article draft, the first nine of which tackle the regulations governing the relationship between landlords and tenants, which have been at loggerheads since a ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) issued last November. The ruling decided that the 7 percent flat rate in the Old Rental Law for residential properties was unconstitutional and called on the Egyptian parliament to amend the law. Article 2 of the new draft stipulates that the termination period of rental contracts for residential purposes will be seven years after the law comes into effect and 5 years for non-residential purposes unless an earlier termination is mutually agreed upon. Article 3 stipulates that each governor must form a committee to categorize areas containing rented residential properties into premium areas, middle-class areas, and economic areas. The classification will consider geographic location, including the area's nature and street, construction quality, utilities available, roads, transport networks, and access to health, social, and educational services. Committees must complete their tasks within three months of the law's enactment, which can be extended once by a Prime Minister's decision. The governor shall publish the final results in the Official Gazette and notify local administrations. Article 4 stipulates that rent in premium areas will be 20 times the current legal rent, with a minimum of EGP 1,000, and 10 times in middle-class areas, with a minimum of EGP 400. In economic areas, the rent will be 10 times with a minimum of EGP 250. The article also stipulates tenants shall pay EGP 250 monthly until the classification committees complete their work. Once the governor's decision is published, tenants must pay any rent differences due in monthly installments equal to the accrual period. Article 5 stipulates that rent for premises rented to natural persons for non-residential use shall be 5 times the current legal rent. Article 6 stipulates that rents determined under Articles 4 and 5 shall increase annually by 15%. Article 7 stipulates that tenants or their legal successors must vacate the premises at the end of the rental term specified in Article 2 if the tenant or successor leaves the premises closed for more than one year without justification or if the tenant or successor owns another usable unit for the same purpose as the rented property. In case of refusal to vacate, the landlord may seek a court order from the summary judge for eviction without prejudice to the right to compensation. The tenant may also file a separate civil case, which does not suspend the summary judge's decision. Heated debate The Housing Committee has held several hearings on the amendments, and Mustafa Abdel-Rahman, head of the Landlords Coalition, rejected those regulating rent increases and the duration of the lease contract. He proposed a three-year transitional period during which tenants would be obliged to pay market rents or be evicted from their units. He also suggested that during the transitional period, monthly rents for units in low-income districts will not be less than LE2,000, LE4,000 for units in average-income districts, and LE8,000 for high-class districts. Lawyer and representative of the Tenants Coalition George Makram warned earlier that passing the government's amendments would cause massive social harm. He directly referred to the five-year transitional period, now extended to seven in the final draft. Makram insisted that the government's new rent bill seriously threatens national security and social peace. According to Abdel-Hamid Sharafeddin, advisor to the head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics, seven percent of Egypt's buildings are regulated by old rent contracts, compared to 15 percent in the 2006 census. Sharafeddin explained that approximately three million units, including 1.8 million residential units, are subject to old rents. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
New Straits Times
08-06-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
Chow instructs review of housing discount
GEORGE TOWN: Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow has instructed state Housing Committee chairman Datuk Seri S. Sundarajoo to review the housing discount policy for Indian Muslims, with the aim of expanding it to all buyers. Chow said Sundarajoo could do so in collaboration with developers to ensure the housing discount policy was more inclusive and benefits all segments of society, in line with principles of social justice. "The state government has received various feedback regarding the announcement of a five per cent discount initiative for the Indian Muslim community for the purchase of completed unsold housing units (overhang properties), as announced by Sundarajoo on June 5. "Some of the feedback received and presented stated that such a discount should also be offered to all buyers to revitalise the property sector, particularly the sale of unsold housing units. "In line with this, I have instructed Sundarajoo to review the existing housing discount policy," he said in a statement. Chow said, additionally, the state executive council (exco) would deliberate on this matter and make an appropriate decision for the benefit of all parties involved. Yesterday, Sundarajoo said the offer of a five per cent discount for first-time homebuyers from the Indian Muslim community in Penang does not involve units under the Bumiputera quota and does not affect any existing home ownership policies. The initiative, he said, was part of efforts to expand home ownership opportunities in the open market, particularly for groups with low participation rates, without affecting the rights of other communities. This came after human rights lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan criticised the move. This prompted Penang DAP chairman Steven Sim Chee Keong to discuss the matter with Chow, who then agreed to bring this issue up for review and discussion at the upcoming exco meeting. Sim said it was important for the Penang government to continue upholding the principle of social justice and to ensure the rights of every Malaysian to own a home were protected.
New Straits Times
08-06-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
Chow instructs review of housing discount policy, considers expansion to all buyers
GEORGE TOWN: Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow has instructed state Housing Committee chairman Datuk Seri S. Sundarajoo to review the housing discount policy for Indian Muslims, with the aim of expanding it to all buyers. Chow said Sundarajoo could do so in collaboration with developers to ensure the housing discount policy was more inclusive and benefits all segments of society, in line with principles of social justice. "The state government has received various feedback regarding the announcement of a five per cent discount initiative for the Indian Muslim community for the purchase of completed unsold housing units (overhang properties), as announced by Sundarajoo on June 5. "Some of the feedback received and presented stated that such a discount should also be offered to all buyers to revitalise the property sector, particularly the sale of unsold housing units. "In line with this, I have instructed Sundarajoo to review the existing housing discount policy," he said in a statement. Chow said, additionally, the state executive council (exco) would deliberate on this matter and make an appropriate decision for the benefit of all parties involved. Yesterday, Sundarajoo said the offer of a five per cent discount for first-time homebuyers from the Indian Muslim community in Penang does not involve units under the Bumiputera quota and does not affect any existing home ownership policies. The initiative, he said, was part of efforts to expand home ownership opportunities in the open market, particularly for groups with low participation rates, without affecting the rights of other communities. This came after human rights lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan criticised the move. This prompted Penang DAP chairman Steven Sim Chee Keong to discuss the matter with Chow, who then agreed to bring this issue up for review and discussion at the upcoming exco meeting. Sim said it was important for the Penang government to continue upholding the principle of social justice and to ensure the rights of every Malaysian to own a home were protected.
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Government 'cannot mark own homework on Grenfell'
The government cannot be left "marking its own homework" when it comes to following through on recommendations from the Grenfell Report, MPs have a letter to Housing Secretary Angela Rayner the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee urged independent oversight of progress on building branded it "completely unacceptable" that survivors and next of kin of the 72 people who lost their lives in the Grenfell Tower disaster "are still awaiting justice for that terrible day".Building safety minister Alex Norris told the committee last month that the government had promised "quarterly reporting" on its website and annual scrutiny in the House of Commons. Campaigners on a range of scandals, including the Grenfell fire and infected blood victims, have previously called for a national oversight mechanism - an independent public body - to be put in place, responsible for collating, analysing and following up on recommendations from public have argued that, without such a body in place, governments can delay the implementation of, or even ignore entirely, recommendations from public this call, the committee told ministers: "The clearest, most consistent message we heard in our inquiry was that the Government must now be held to account for implementing these recommendations."We therefore endorse witness calls for the design and implementation of an independent mechanism to ensure that the government is held to account going forward and is not left marking its own homework." Florence Eshalomi, a Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green who sits on the housing committee, said survivours and next of kin want to see government action "at a pace"."The sense from them was that so much time had been lost and yet nothing had moved on considerably," she told BBC London. "What we are asking is there should be a national oversight mechanism, similar to what's been proposed in the Hillsborough, to effectively monitor the different stages of implementation and looking at those recommendations so that we can all track the progress." 'Catastrophic mistakes' Appearing before the committee last month, Mr Norris said that, while he recognised the call for an oversight mechanism from campaigners who have been victim of "scandal and failure of the British state", he "can't make that commitment".He said: "That's a Cabinet Office-run process. I've made the commitment I've made in line with what we published in the inquiry on the publicly available information. The work is ongoing across government on the national oversight mechanism more generally."The committee said an independent oversight mechanism would "reduce the risk of future governments repeating the catastrophic mistakes which have historically led to state-related deaths, from Hillsborough, to the infected blood scandal, to the Grenfell Tower fire itself".Elsewhere in their letter, the MPs also demanded an urgent review of the decision to mandate sprinkler installation in new care homes but not existing ones, and that sufficient funding is provided to ensure all disabled residents in high-rise buildings can have Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans (Peeps).The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government has been asked to comment.
