Suburb Circular article on student housing

I recently visited Middlesex University students to see an exhibition they were promoting , about the problems facing students renting their first home. it is clear that many students were not aware of their rights, as it was the first time they were living away from home and their first experience of the private rental market.

 

I was particularly struck by the model houses in the exhibition, where students had written comments in the windows on their experiences. Comments such as:

Everything you wished wouldn’t be there, there was. Mould, damp, rats and a terrible landlord.’ ; ‘ It feels like you’re signing a contract with Trotter’s Independent Trading Co’; ‘ the landlord cancelled our contract, a week before we should have moved in’ ; and ‘ London = Mould, high rent and lazy landlord’.

While there may be nothing new about students having poor accommodation ( as I recall from my university days many years ago), the complaints I heard are now far worse than they used to be.

 

With such pressure in the housing market, it is so hard for students and other young people setting up home for the first time to find decent affordable accommodation, and as they are new to the rental market there is a real risk that they will be subject to exploitation. It can be tough with bad landlords, poor quality housing, overcrowding and still extremely expensive rents.

We clearly need to deal with London’s housing crisis in its many disparate forms, but I believe the next Mayor should pay particular attention to the needs of students and young people in his housing policies, with particular reference to ensuring that they are protected from bad landlords. I believe this should include a campaign working with universities and college authorities and student unions, to ensure students are aware of their rights as tenants and how to enforce them.

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