Although stereotypically grimy and untidy, every student needs a house to live in. With a falling number of places in University owned halls being made available to second and third year students, coupled with swelling student numbers, accommodation prices are on the increase. Average student rents have risen by seventeen percent, adding an extra £360 a year to hard up students’ living costs.
Manchester has managed to stay below the national average at £56.65 a week, while the average student in London has to shell out over £100, more than 67% higher than the national average.
With increasing difficulty in obtaining manageable student finance, and mounting debts, this upward tread is only going to add to students’ financial woes. In the worst case, this could be the proverbial nail in the coffin for many who are unsure about getting a university education due to financial restrictions.
There are always queues of people lining up to accuse students of ‘taking over’ an area of a city, ‘forcing out’ locals and generally messing the place up. In response to this, local council candidates have suggested controlling how many students are allowed to live in one area.
Maybe these populist politicians should devote a little time to ensure that students, who are also their constituents, are not getting continuously fleeced by dodgy landlords who provide overpriced, poor quality accommodation to an under resourced group of residences with little other choice.
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