Student Accommodation:Layout 1 11/09/2009 14:28 Page 25
student accommodation
Alan Ward, chairman of the Residential
Landlords Association, described the idea
as a “classic case of nimbyism,” with
“small but vociferous interest groups” not
wanting students and migrants living near
them, while Wes Streeting, president of
the National Union of Students
emphasised that students live and work
within their communities and contribute
to their local areas through charity work
and campaigning on local issues. He said
the proposals would “marginalise
students by forcing them to pay private
companies to live in large ghettos away
from the rest of the community.”
You can’t use the
planning system for
social engineering
Richard Chesterman, 23, a law graduate
living in a shared house in Islington, north
London, commented: “It’s a disgrace that
students could be face being barred from
living in places just because they’re
students. There will always be a minority
of people who cause trouble, but shipping
everyone out of integrated society by
banning the very shared houses that are
affordable to young professionals would
be massively damaging to everyone.”
Expensive to convert
HMOs are often large and therefore
difficult and expensive to convert into a
different use, such as flats or family
housing, argues Chris Town, an HMO
landlord in Leeds. “The government’s
proposal will put a severe constriction
on the flexibility of property markets to
adapt to local circumstances. As a
result, it is possible that many derelict
buildings will remain so as planning
permission may be turned down on
account of there being too many HMO
properties in that area.”
Communities & Local Government
maintains that an over concentration of
houses of multiple occupation in one area
can have a negative impact on the
neighbourhood and local public services.
Student turnover is typically high, 52% in
Leeds for example, which can affect the
sense of community as increasingly
student landlords opt to concentrate
Key stats
properties ever closer together in
university towns.
•There are an estimated 2.5m
Measures taken by universities to
students in the UK
improve the situation include heavy
•The Govt estimates there are
investment in new student halls, the
300,000 licensable HMOs in England
creation of community relations officers
and Wales with around 35,000 reported
and, in some cases, requiring students to
to be unlicensed.
sign a code of conduct.
(1) ‘Houses in multiple occupation and possible planning
Liz Peace: Using a broad brush approach makes
responses’, CLG., May 2009. no sense.
edbmagazine.co.uk 25
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