Housing Hand, a rent guarantor service, has voiced its concerns regarding the Renters Reform Bill and its potential impact on student renters. The service’s Chief Operating Officer, Graham Hayward, highlights the increased scrutiny on the challenges faced by students in securing suitable accommodation.
Hayward emphasizes the vital role that universities play in maintaining strong attendance, which, in turn, necessitates coordination with various stakeholders in the accommodation supply chain to ensure that the growing number of students can be adequately housed. He emphasizes that the housing market, like any other, must strike a balance between supply and demand; otherwise, student accommodation demand could outstrip supply, driving up prices.
The Renters Reform Bill introduces regulatory complexities, particularly in its treatment of purpose-built student accommodation and Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs), which are common in student housing supply. Housing Hand warns that these challenges, coupled with the effects of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic on student numbers, could jeopardize the UK’s global leadership in higher education.
Hayward points out that the UK is currently hailed as a global higher education leader, and this status could be at risk if all stakeholders involved in educating and housing students fail to collaborate effectively in finding a balanced solution.
One key issue within the Bill pertains to open-ended tenancies, which could pose problems for the student accommodation market. Both students and landlords typically prefer tenancies with fixed start and end dates.
Housing Hand highlights significant regional disparities in demand and supply, with students in cities such as Manchester, London, and Bristol often having to live far from their universities. Hayward warns of the difficulties faced by students who started their courses this autumn in securing suitable accommodation close to their institutions. He stresses the need for urgent and decisive actions to support landlords and make providing rental homes a more attractive proposition to address this situation.
Data from the Cushman & Wakefield UK Student Accommodation Report 2023 reveals that London has witnessed a significant increase in international student numbers, with a rise of 27,495 students over the past two years. Furthermore, full-time student numbers reached a record high of 2.2 million in the academic year 2021/22, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
In the Second Reading debate on the Renters Reform Bill last month, Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield highlighted that nearly 45 percent of students, approximately 600,000 young people in England and Wales, reside in the private rented sector.
Longstanding housing advocate Clive Betts MP shared a concerning anecdote, stating, “Last year, Manchester students were actually being encouraged to live in Liverpool because there was not enough housing in Manchester for them.” These challenges underscore the pressing need for comprehensive solutions to address the accommodation issues facing students in the UK.