Renters Left Sweating as Landlords Refuse to Fit Ceiling Fans Amid Rising Heatwaves

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  • Post last modified:17 August 2026

Britain’s summers keep getting hotter, but for millions of renters, staying cool is not that simple. Many tenants cannot drill into a ceiling, rewire a light fitting, or fit permanent equipment without written permission. That leaves them stuck between two bad choices: sweat it out or spend hundreds of pounds on a bulky air conditioning unit that guzzles electricity. Many shared houses and flats also do not have anywhere sensible to fit a window unit in the first place, which rules out that option before it even gets considered. There is a quieter option that more renters are trying this year,…

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Interim Timms Report brands DWP PIP system “not fit for purpose”

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  • Post last modified:10 July 2026

On 9 July, social security and disability minister Stephen Timms published his interim report on the state of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) system. The initial findings were damning, recognising that the payments were vitally necessary for disabled recipients, but ultimately “not fit for purpose”. In large part, this failing was due to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)-managed assessment system. Participants branded those assessments as “dehumanising”, “soul destroying”, and “degrading”. The review also highlighted pressing concerns regarding: whether the functional assessment and descriptors fully reflect real-life impacts, particularly for fluctuating, multiple, and less visible conditions, as well as about…

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