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Student Blocks threaten local private rental business

from "UK Landlord" magazine, Sep 2007

Landlords in Newcastle recently expressed their concern over the local Council's planning proposals for purpose-built student accommodation in the city, which were made in hopes of addressing the student housing shortage.

The Council's intention to allow student accommodation providers such as Unite to build purpose-built blocks of student flats in the city has sparked objections from local landlords whose businesses would be affected. As well as potentially driving dedicated, conscientious private individual landlords out of business, institutionalised living accommodation is thought to be more expensive, saddling student tenants with much larger debts than they would incur if they rented privately, and allowing them far less independence. NLA Head of Public Affairs Simon Gordon noted: "In the last year alone, students brought £40 million to Newcastle: some of that money should go to private landlords who offer good, well-modernised accommodation at a fair price, rather than to some slick company offering to institutionalise students for 3 years in expensive accommodation."

While purpose-built accommodation flats may address the shortage in student housing caused by the expansion of the city's universities (it is estimated that 6,000 extra student bed spaces will be needed by 2011 ), local landlords say this is at too high a cost for local business. Paul Allison of New Student, an independent student accommodation newspaper covering Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield, likens the situation of local landlords to the plight of small shops in the face of chain superstores, and comments on the Council's tendency to contradict itself: "The Council is always advocating small shops and locally-owned businesses, but then it criticises local landlords and treats 'superhall' companies such as Unite as the knight in shining armour that will come and solve the student housing shortage."

Joan Stuart, chair of NLA North East branch, commented that the majority of private landlords in Newcastle take pride in providing accommodation of the highest standard which meets the technological requirements of the modern student, is safe and well maintained and offers them the opportunity of a home within the local community. For now, the threat has been abated: plans for an accommodation block on the edge of the city centre were rejected by council planners due to the industrial and relatively isolated nature of the area. The controversy, however, continues.

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