CP4SO – Press Release for launch of Proposed Student Housing Policy for Birmingham
Birmingham has the largest population of students outside
London, but is the only large university city that has no policy on student
housing.
A co-operative of community groups (the Community
Partnership for Selly Oak) has drafted a policy for Birmingham City Council to
provide a basis for consideration of planning applications for student housing.
Applications are often for poor quality conversions to houses in multiple
occupation (HMOs), are often retrospective where development has gone ahead
without permission, or are for large blocks of purpose built student
accommodation that is wiping high streets, particularly in Selly Oak.
The main steer of the proposal is:
·
To provide Birmingham City Council with a policy
framework as a basis for approval or rejection of planning applications for
student housing.
·
To ensure student accommodation is provided
close to universities and not scattered on random lots, or focused on one particular
district – Selly Oak.
·
To ensure purpose built student accommodation
provides the cluster flat style of accommodation that students want.
·
To avoid problems of affordability and possible
future collapse in the market. Current purpose-built accommodation is at the
higher end of the price range for accommodation, leading to problems of student
affordability – particularly in the case of ‘studio’ flats. If the market
collapses Birmingham will be left with large vacant buildings unsuitable for
reuse without significant conversion costs.
The Community Partnership for Selly Oak with local
councillors have campaigned for better quality student accommodation and for
its wider distribution across the city so as to avoid the blight that Selly Oak
is now suffering.
Selly Oak representative Coun Karen McCarthy has spoken of
her fears for the area after hearing of new student accommodation plans and
considers that the Birmingham suburb faces an “horrific” future as it becomes
the location of choice for developers to place accommodation for students from
all five Birmingham universities. Karen feels a policy on Student housing would
provide much wanted direction for all impacted by student housing, including
permanent residents and students suffering from sky-high rents and poor
conditions.
MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, Steve McCabe has campaigned at a national
level for legislation with a bill - Protection of Family Homes Bill. The Bill
called for tougher enforcement action against rogue landlords and developers
but ran out of parliamentary time. Commenting on CP4SO’s proposals, Steve
McCabe MP said:
“In Selly Oak we have seen a proliferation of purpose built student
flats as well as huge numbers of family homes turned into houses of multiple
occupancy (HMOs) often with unauthorised extensions tacked on to maximise
rental profits. We need a sensible student housing policy to tackle these
issues and I hope the City Council will work with local residents, CP4SO,
myself and local councillors to achieve this.”
Ends.
The proposed policy can be downloaded here
