New paid sick leave rules coming into effect for federally regulated workers



Thu, December 1, 2022 at 11:23 a.m.

OTTAWA — Employees in federally regulated private-sector workplaces are now eligible for 10 days of paid sick leave.

As of Dec. 31, workers who have been continuously employed for at least 30 days will have access to three paid sick days.

Workers will then get a fourth sick day as of Feb. 1, and will accumulate one additional day at the start of every month up to a maximum of 10 days per year.

On the campaign trail in 2021, the Liberals pledged to introduce 10 days of paid sick leave for federally regulated workers.

In a news release, Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan says the paid leave means "more workers won’t have to choose between getting well and getting paid."

The Canadian Labour Congress applauded the new policy in a statement, urging provinces that do not offer paid sick leave to follow suit.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 1, 2022.

Algerian police release dissident writer

The New Arab Staff & Agencies
30 November, 2022

One of Algeria's most prominent writers said Tuesday that he had been set free, days after he was arrested for reasons that remain unclear.


Labter played a prominent role in Algeria's "Hirak" protests

One of Algeria's most prominent writers, Lazhari Labter, said Tuesday that he had been set free, days after he was arrested for reasons that remain unclear.

The 70-year-old, who played a prominent role in the North African country's 2019 Hirak protests which unseated longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, had been arrested by police officers on November 20, according to his family.

On Tuesday, Labter's own Facebook page carried a post sending "a very big thank you" to those who had expressed "their solidarity, their support in the difficult times that I have known these last days".

He said he was back with loved ones and needed rest, but vowed to stay "loyal to my principles of justice and freedom".

"Long live free and democratic Algeria! Freedom for all unjustly imprisoned prisoners!" he concluded, without explaining why he had been detained.

Labter, a prolific journalist, editor and poet, is known for penning the so-called "18 commandments" of the 2019 protests, urging peaceful demonstrations against the authorities.

He has also published around 40 books, including poetry, and two comic novels.

The author, who has worked for the International Federation of Journalists, is a former president of Algeria's editors' union and was a founding member of the national journalists' syndicate.

According to local rights group LADDH, several Algerian journalists remain in the country's prisons, either having been convicted or awaiting trial.

Reporters Without Borders ranks Algeria 134th out of 180 in its 2022 World Press Freedom Index.

CANADA WIDE SHORTAGES

ALBERTA

No Signs Of Improvement For Pembina Hills School Bus Driver Shortage

Wed, November 30, 2022 

Finding enough certified bus drivers has always been challenging; according to Brett Cooper, Deputy Superintendent for the Pembina Hills School Division (PHSD), the issue seems to have only worsened after COVID-19. Pembina Hills isn’t the only School Division experiencing difficulties; bus driver shortages are being increasingly reported across Alberta.

Due to the ongoing bus driver shortage, the PHSD has had days where they have been unable to provide bus service to various routes. The number of spare drivers has also decreased, making it difficult to find a replacement if a bus driver becomes sick or has to take a day off for an appointment.

With 68 routes across the PHSD, recruiting enough bus drivers to staff these routes with spare drivers to cover off when needed remains a priority. The PHSD has instituted some innovative changes in the transportation department to attract more applicants.

One of the most significant hurdles in becoming a bus driver is training. The training program for bus drivers is expensive, roughly $5,000. In addition to the expense, prospective drivers have also not been paid while taking the mandatory training, throwing up another barrier for those wishing to enter the field.

About five years ago, the PHSD partnered with another School Division to hire an in-house trainer. This step allowed both School Divisions to offer prospective drivers the mandatory training without the $5,000 price tag standing in their way. This year the PHSD has also started paying prospective bus drivers while they take the 65-hour training program.

The PHSD offers other incentives as well, including reimbursement of the driver’s monthly cell phone bill, a plug-in allowance if a driver has to keep the bus plugged in at their residence, full benefits including eye and dental care, and a pension plan. Cooper explains that they are trying to make the bus driver position as inviting as possible. As an added perk, drivers with small children can bring their kids with them; the bus will be equipped with a baby seat. And because the position follows the school year, bus drivers get the summers off.

The PHSD is always looking for bus drivers in their local neighbourhoods. Applicants require a clean driving record. Heavy equipment or farm equipment driving experience would be an asset.

Cooper says, “We would love to have people come out and drive bus for us.”

Dean LaBerge, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Grizzly Gazette

ABOLISH SICK NOTES!
Doctors in N.S. want employers to stop asking for sick notes - but the requests keep coming

Wed, November 30, 2022 

Dr. Leisha Hawker said her colleagues have seen an increase in the number of requests for sick notes from employers. She said there's no clinical benefit to the notes, and they only increase the burden on the health care system. (Doctors Nova Scotia - image credit)

Doctors Nova Scotia says physicians are seeing an increase in the number requests they're getting for sick notes, despite a request from the province's chief medical officer of health to employers to stop using them.

Dr. Robert Strang made the plea at his last briefing in mid-November, saying employers are putting "unnecessary pressure" on the healthcare system.

Despite that, Dr. Leisha Hawker, president of Doctors Nova Scotia, said physicians are still getting lots of requests to write the documents as COVID, the flu and other viruses spread through the province.

"I'm definitely seeing more requests and hearing it from more of my colleagues as well," Hawker said. "Employers need to look at other ways to manage their employees and think of other ways to assess their employees' ability to work."

Unnecessary exposures to others

Hawker said it's not just about time, but safety.

Sick patients should be home resting, but some feel compelled to work because they know it will be a struggle to get a note, she said.

"Or they're going to see their doctor and it's a busy waiting room where there's more vulnerable folks like babies, pregnant women and people with cancer and they're spreading it to others," she pointed out.

The dispute over sick notes is hardly new, and is not isolated to Nova Scotia.

Hawker always replies with a letter that was first designed by Doctors Nova Scotia about 15 years ago, telling employers to stop the practice. But she said demand is up once again, "aggravated" by the large volume of illness in the community.

Hawker is a family physician who also works in a newcomer clinic and the addictions clinic. She said most requests come from her most vulnerable patients at the two specialized clinics.

"I think that speaks to the marginalized populations where they're working jobs where they don't have that same level of trust from their employers."

Sick notes are also the target of an effort by the province to improve working conditions for physicians.

The Office of Regulatory Affairs and Service Effectiveness has a list of 15 administrative tasks placed on doctors that it is trying to eliminate – with sick notes near the top.

Leanne Hachey, the executive director, said reducing red tape could make a considerable difference to the province's overtaxed healthcare system.

"If 500 employers are doing it, that adds up to a lot of time that we're asking physicians to spend when they could be spending their time in other, better ways," she said.

CBC

Hachey said cutting back on sick notes could benefit in a number of different ways: it could give doctors more time to spend with other patients, it could improve their work-life balance, or it could potentially give doctors the ability to take on more patients.

She said her office's goal overall is to reduce physician burden by 50,000 hours – the equivalent of 150,000 patient visits. In order to measure that, staff in her office have used stop watches to time how long it takes physicians to complete each administrative task, including writing a sick note.

So far, Hachey said her office has convinced the public service commission to change its policy for notes for incidental illnesses, which are those that require just a few days off.

"We know in working with the small business community and in talking to them, there are many small employers that no longer request sick notes but there's still more work to be done."

'Strugging with the workload'

Hawker said she can't estimate how many notes she writes because it varies week to week. But she said her peers are frustrated when they're asked to give up urgent appointment space because employers require notes immediately.

"It took away access to somebody else who might have had another illness like a bladder infection or strep throat," she said.

"It's not only COVID, but RSV and influenza are really high right now, and the healthcare system, the acute care systems in particular are really struggling with the workload."

NOT JUST THE APPEARANCE OF INPROPRIETY

N.L. mayor, councillors flew on jet owned by billionaire with local energy interests



STEPHENVILLE, N.L. — A Newfoundland mayor says he and three council members did nothing wrong when they flew home from Germany aboard a private jet owned by a billionaire vying to build a major energy project in their town.

Tom Rose, mayor of the western Newfoundland town of Stephenville, said Wednesday that the flight offered by John Risley in September saved the town of around 7,000 people approximately $5,000. Risley is a director of World Energy GH2, a company awaiting provincial government approval for a US$12-billion wind and hydrogen project in the Stephenville region.

Rose said that with large, wealthy companies, meeting on a golf course or a private jet is "the way business is done."

"Time is very, very critical to top senior executives … such as John Risley," he added.

As first reported by CBC News, Rose said he and three colleagues were in Hamburg, Germany, in September for a conference on green energy. He said that during the conference, they signed a memorandum of understanding with GH2 officials to "engage in development" on their project. Risley offered to fly the Stephenville group partway home — from Hamburg to Halifax — on his private jet, Rose said.

The offer, Rose explained, provided a good opportunity for the councillors to have private, in-depth discussions with GH2 leaders about their proposed project. Rose said he and his colleagues had flight insurance, adding that they accepted Risley's offer and got a refund for their plane tickets.

World Energy GH2 is looking to capitalize on western Newfoundland's steady winds and Germany's hunger to find alternative energy sources to Russian natural gas. The first phase of the company's proposal calls for up to 164 onshore wind turbines to power a hydrogen production facility in Stephenville. Long-term plans call for tripling the project's size.

In August, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz led a business delegation to Stephenville and signed a five-page "declaration of intent'' with Canada to kick-start a transatlantic supply chain for hydrogen, with the first deliveries expected by 2025. The hydrogen project in Stephenville is awaiting environmental approval from the Newfoundland and Labrador government. It will also have to clear a nomination and bid process for Crown lands.

Rose said he has "100 per cent" confidence the project will go ahead. Construction on an access road, and the erection of wind measurement towers, has already begun in the area, he added.

The project has been controversial, however. The news of the Stephenville councillors' trip on Risley's jet came just over a month after website allNewfoundlandLabrador.com reported that Premier Andrew Furey vacationed at Risley's luxury fishing lodge in July 2021, nine months before his government lifted a long-standing moratorium on wind development.

Furey said the wind energy file is being handled by another minister; therefore, he said, there is an "ethical wall" between him and the company's interests. The premier has also said repeatedly that he paid for the trip himself.

Rose said he "absolutely" understands that some are uncomfortable with him and his colleagues accepting the ride on Risley's private jet. But he said most people that he is connected with are happy his small community was able to save $5,000.

The Stephenville mayor said he respects the opinions of people who have concerns about the project, but he said it will be beneficial for the town and Newfoundland and Labrador.

"This is a world energy crisis and a G7 country has asked Canada to step in and help," Rose said, referring to Germany. "And our role in Stephenville, we were selected because of one major reason, and that is that we have the best wind … in all of North America."

In a statement emailed Wednesday, GH2 said the Stephenville councillors were in Hamburg to learn more about what hydrogen development could mean for their community.

"The World Energy GH2 team was there as well, and we were happy to be able to offer what were otherwise empty seats for the ride home," said spokesperson Laura Barron.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2022.

DECRIMINALIZE ALL DRUGS

Calls for expanded safe supply as B.C. counts another 179 overdose deaths


Wed, November 30, 2022 



VICTORIA — British Columbia’s coroner says the overdose death toll for October reached 179 people, prompting a renewed call for Premier David Eby to introduce a widely accessible safe supply of drugs.

The coroner says the October statistics show that illicit drugs caused the deaths of 1,827 people in B.C. in the first 10 months of this year.

Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe says the increased toxicity and variability of street drugs has created an environment where everyone who uses substances is at risk.

Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau, a member of the legislature’s standing committee on health, says it heard from many people who said the safe supply of drugs needs to be expanded to save lives.

Lapointe agrees it’s imperative that a safer supply is available in all areas of the province, adding it’s not a matter of choosing one approach or another but improving all access for treatment and recovery.

Sheila Malcolmson, the minister of mental health and addictions, says her heart goes out to those families, friends and communities that are grieving their losses.

"Our government is expanding and evolving our response to this public-health emergency as we strive to stop the terrible loss of life to the poisoned drug supply," the minister says in a statement.

“While we have been adding new treatment and recovery services, expanding overdose prevention and working to end stigma about addiction, the increasing illicit drug toxicity has taken more lives.”

The coroner's statistics show 453 deaths have occurred this year in Vancouver, or about 25 per cent of those who died.

However, Prince George in northern B.C. and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island have recorded more illicit drug-related deaths this year than in any previous year.

The service says both the Island and Northern Health authorities are trending towards record lives lost to overdose.

At least 10,688 B.C. residents have died since the government first declared a public health emergency in April 2016.

The service says illicit drug toxicity is the leading cause of unnatural death in the province.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Housing, health care among priorities Manitoba First Nations leaders bring to PM

Wed, November 30, 2022 

Manitoba’s top Indigenous leaders met face-to-face with the Prime Minister in Ottawa this week, and say the meeting was an opportunity to let him know they want to see changes in the way the federal government funds and supports First Nations communities across the country and here in Manitoba.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) Grand Chief Cathy Merrick, Southern Chiefs Organization (SCO) Grand Chief Jerry Daniels, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Grand Chief Garrison Settee, and Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Regional Chief for Manitoba Cindy Woodhouse.

The leaders said First Nations communities in Manitoba continue to struggle to access adequate housing, and adequate services like health care, mental health and addictions services, and that they let the Prime Minister know on Tuesday the way that the federal government is currently funding First Nations communities is not working here in Manitoba.

“We articulated to the Prime Minister that First Nations Governments in Manitoba need to be given oversight and control over the administration of funding for services for First Nations in Manitoba,” Merrick said in a joint media release from the four organizations after the meeting concluded.

“There are chronic shortfalls in government services for First Nations, such as health and housing that have been present for as long as Canada has existed.”

But while leaders want to see a change to how First Nations communities are funded, they say the feds also need to be putting up more dollars for those communities.

“We have some of the largest reserves in Canada and 22% of the First Nations population in Canada,” Settee said about Manitoba. “Chronic underfunding has created crises in our First Nations, and we need investments to flow in this next budget that will address the needs and priorities identified by our leadership.

“We need the Prime Minister to commit to working with us in partnership to ensure the Crown is meeting its constitutional, international human rights and other legal obligations, with respect to Aboriginal and Treaty rights.”

Woodhouse said she did give the Trudeau government credit for the work they have done to fund First Nations communities in recent years, even though she said the level of funding is still not where she and others believe it should be.

“I feel First Nations and Canada together have made a start. Over the last six budget cycles, all under the federal government, $55.65 billion of new investments have been committed to First Nations peoples in response to our own budget priorities,” Woodhouse said

“This is a landmark, and represents a degree of responsiveness that no other Prime Minister has achieved.”

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Dave Baxter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Sun

MANITOBA
'Reuniting was indescribable:' Communities share stories of searching unmarked graves

WINNIPEG — On a clear summer day in August, Rebecca Blake found herself standing in a cemetery outside Edmonton searching for the graves of Inuvialuit who died in the South during a tuberculosis epidemic.

In a corner of a cemetery in St. Albert, Alta., under some trees she found a section dedicated to Indigenous peoples and a monument holding the names of 98 people buried there from Northern Canada.

As Blake looked around the area she discovered a grim reality.

"I realized there was not enough room for 98 people. Then I learned they were one upon the other, upon the other," she said.

At a different cemetery, Blake learned a woman who was taken from her community to attend a tuberculosis hospital was buried in the same grave as a local social service recipient.

Blake, who is Inuvialuit and an ordained deacon, was part of a group that included family members and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation who travelled to the Edmonton area last summer to conduct ceremonies at the burial sites of 12 individuals who were located and identified through the Nanilavut Project. The project, which translates to "let's find them" in Inuktut, began to search for and honour the lives of those who died in TB hospitals.

Blake helped lead the funeral ceremonies. She shared her experience this week at the second National Gathering on Unmarked Burials that was hosted by the office of the independent special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked burials and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

"The sense of reuniting was indescribable. Everything that I witnessed over those few days will stay with me for the rest of my life and has changed me," Blake told a crowd of residential school survivors, health experts and family members.

The event, which wrapped Wednesday, focused on promoting community well-being and addressing trauma in the search and recovery of missing children.

Kimberly Murray, whom the federal government named as the special interlocutor in June, identified common concerns when addressing trauma.

Murray said communities are in urgent need of resources to implement wellness programs. She said Indigenous elders and healers need to be recognized as mental health practitioners and changes are needed to federal funding agreements.

The federal government plans to spend $320 million to help Indigenous communities heal from the ongoing effects of residential schools through projects, including searching former school sites, holding ceremonies or memorializing sites.

Murray said communities have been told this funding cannot be used for legal assistance.

"When I think about the history of the Indian Act and how Indigenous people weren't allowed to hire lawyers, it's almost like they took that provision of the Indian Act and breathed life back into it in their terms and conditions of their funding agreements."

Some communities have expressed difficulty accessing lands and negotiating with private landowners, which has forced them to search for legal assistance, said Murray.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in western Manitoba was recently denied access to search for unmarked graves on part of the grounds of the former Brandon Residential School. The area is now a private campground.

Murray submitted a progress report to the federal government at the beginning of this month that outlined other common concerns she has heard.

They include the barriers survivors and communities face when requesting access to records. In one case a survivor was told it would take six months for them to gain access, said Murray.

She also found there are questions about whether law reform and other measures are needed to support death investigations and, where appropriate, criminal prosecutions.

Murray called for governments to immediately waive their fees for communities to be able to access death, birth or any other certificates that the statistics offices hold.

"We've heard at this gathering there are family members buried in cemeteries in marked graves, but they don't know where they are," she said. "Those death records can tell them where they're buried … communities need to have access to that."

When families lose a child without any answers to what happened or where they are buried, it leads to a different kind of unresolved grief, former senator and judge Murray Sinclair said during his keynote speech Monday evening.

"Trauma that we all feel as a collective of the effects that children are still in the ground and were so badly treated is a trauma that runs throughout our nations in all of us," Sinclair said.

Murray said she also heard this week about the importance of community solidarity when it comes to recovery work.

"People are helping each other in the healing, and there's power to that."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2022.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press

76 Million-Year-Old Fossil Settles Longtime Debate Over T. Rex History

Story by Monisha Ravisetti • 

Ask anyone to name three dinosaurs in five seconds, and I guarantee you Tyrannosaurus rex will make the list. Whether it's due to Jurassic Park or humanity's deep obsession with ancient predators, T. rex has become a cultural icon.


The spectacular lower jaw of the holotype skull had most of the teeth preserved in their sockets Badlands Dinosaur Museum© Provided by CNET

Despite the level of detail we have about this tiny-armed reptile itself, scientists surprisingly don't know much about the rest of T. rex's family. A wealth of questions remain about the ancestral tree that sprouted this vicious, quintessential dinosaur -- though paleontologists with the Badlands Dinosaur Museum in North Dakota say we may have some answers, at last.

In a paper published last week in the journal Paleontology and Evolutionary Science, paleontologists Elias Warshaw and Denver Fowler report the discovery of a 76.5 million-year-old fossil that they believe belonged to one of T. rex's ancestors, a species now known as Daspletosaurus wilsoni.


An artist's rendering of D. wilsoni. Check out the unique arrangement of little horns under the dino's eyes. Andrey Atuchin & Badlands Dinosaur Museum© Provided by CNET

And this dinosaur, expected to have lived during the Cretaceous period, seems to have been just as ferocious as its famous descendant.

D. wilsoni -- which literally translates to "Wilson's frightful reptile," after John P. Wilson who found the specimen to begin with -- likely once had expended air pockets in its skull, a blue-grayish coloring, a set of sharp teeth and an elongated eye socket -- rimmed with horns.

Related video: Upcoming sale of T-Rex skull reignites debate over auctioning fossils

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But in short, locating this species is a big deal for scientists because its existence could provide the "missing link" in T. rex's family backstory, bridging a longstanding gap between older and younger tyrannosaur species named Daspletosaurus torosus and Daspletosaurus horneri, which lived about 77 to 75 million years ago, respectively.

"Since the 1990s," Warshaw and Fowler wrote in a statement, "debate has surrounded Daspletosaurus, a large tyrannosaurid known from Montana and Alberta, which has been proposed to be an ancestor of T. rex itself."

But according to the statement, reconstructing the evolutionary relationships of Daspletosaurus has been hampered by the rarity of good specimens, and many researchers are still engaged in debate as to whether these tyrannosaurids represent a single lineage evolving in place or several closely related species from various lineages.

"We can now see that many of these species are actually very finely separated in time from each other," the statement reads, "forming consecutive ladder-like steps in a single evolutionary lineage where one ancestral species evolves directly into a descendant species."

The team even named its fossil find "Sisyphus," after the mythical Greek king who was punished for cheating death. As the tale goes, Sisyphys' punishment was to roll a giant boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down the hill every time he got close to the top. This seemingly horrid endeavor lasted for an eternity.

"The holotype skull and partial skeleton, BDM 107, is nicknamed 'Sisyphus' after the seemingly endless task of removing over 25 feet (8 meters) of rock which lay on top of the bones," the researchers said.


The paleontology team digging for remnants of D. wilsoni had to remove 25 feet of rock before a skeleton was revealed. Elías Warshaw & Denver Fowler.© Provided by CNET

It was Badlands Dinosaur Museum crew member Wilson who spotted the skeleton in the first place in 2017 -- a small, flat piece of bone was peeking out from the bottom of a towering cliff. Upon close examination, that little bit of evidence turned out to be part of the dinosaur's nostril. And so the dig began, culminating in 2021 with an exquisite Tyrannosaurus-type animal figure.

"These findings," the researchers said, "suggest that previous research was correct in identifying several species of Daspletosaurus as a single evolving lineage, and supports the descent of T. rex from this group."

UK

Warning of ‘homelessness emergency’ as private renters face eviction threat

Story by Jemma Crew • Yesterday 

The proportion of private renters under threat of eviction in England has risen by more than three-quarters in a year, a survey suggests, prompting a charity to warn of a rapidly emerging “homelessness emergency”.


Housing Prices© PA Wire

Around 5% of private renters – the equivalent of 503,995 people across the country – say they have received an eviction notice or been threatened with eviction in the last month, according to polling for Shelter.

This is up about 80% from a similar period last year, when 3% of respondents (equivalent to 279,376 people) reported such.

The survey of 2,000 private renters in England between October 26 and November 10 was carried out by YouGov and funded by Nationwide Building Society.


It is simply absurd that support for housing costs is being linked to rents as they were three years ago, not as they are today
Chris Norris, National Residential Landlords Association

It found 4% said they have fallen behind on their rent – equivalent to 481,644 people.

Overall around one in 12 private renters (8%) – the equivalent of 940,939 people across the country – are at risk of losing their homes because they are under threat of eviction or behind on rent, the findings suggest.

According to the polling, a quarter of private renters are constantly struggling to pay their rent, up from 20% this time last year.

Shelter warned that failing to increase housing benefit as private rents rise “means the rental crisis is fast becoming a homelessness emergency”.

While the autumn statement confirmed that many benefits will be uprated in line with inflation from April, local housing allowance rates were not increased, and have remained at the same level since 2020.

Related video: Nonprofit expects rise in evictions this winter
Duration 3:38
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Both Shelter and the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) are calling for this to be unfrozen.

The Government said it has given vulnerable households and councils financial support, and it is committed to ending Section 21 “no-fault” evictions.

Polly Neate, Shelter chief executive, said: “Almost a million private renters are at risk of being kicked out of their home this winter, and more will follow.


The Government’s refusal to unfreeze housing benefit, when private rents are rising at record rates, means the rental crisis is fast becoming a homelessness emergency
Polly Neate, Shelter chief executive

“Every day our emergency helpline advisers are taking gut-wrenching calls – from the mum who’s skipping meals to pay the rent to the family terrified they will be spending Christmas in a grotty homeless hostel.

“The Government’s refusal to unfreeze housing benefit, when private rents are rising at record rates, means the rental crisis is fast becoming a homelessness emergency.”

Chris Norris, policy director for the NRLA, said: “The vast majority of landlords want to help tenants stay in their homes wherever possible. However, the Government needs to do more to support those most in need of help.

“This should include unfreezing housing benefit rates. It is simply absurd that support for housing costs is being linked to rents as they were three years ago, not as they are today.

“Ministers need also to address the supply crisis in the rental market. Recent tax hikes have served only to cut the number of homes available to rent, whilst demand continues to remain strong. All this is doing is driving rents up and making homes harder to access.

“We are working with the Government to ensure the system that replaces Section 21 repossessions is fair and workable for responsible landlords as well as tenants.

“This needs to include ensuring landlords can effectively tackle the problem of anti-social tenants and those building substantial rent arrears.”

Ensuring a fair deal for renters remains a priority for the Government, that’s why we will deliver on our commitment to abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions
Government spokesman

A Government spokesman said: “We know households are concerned about rising costs, which is why we have announced the energy price guarantee to help with bills over winter, as well as payments of £1,200 to millions of the most vulnerable.

“Councils have a duty to ensure families are not left without a roof over their heads, and we’re giving them £316 million this year to help prevent evictions and provide temporary accommodation.

“Ensuring a fair deal for renters remains a priority for the Government, that’s why we will deliver on our commitment to abolish Section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions.”