Reports of Durham University students camping outside lettings agents overnight in order to secure accommodation has sparked action from the city's MP.
Large numbers of students are reported to have been desperately trying to secure accommodation for the next academic year by camping outside lettings agents overnight in the cold. Students were expected to protest in the city on Friday about the quality, availability and affordability of housing in the city.
And now Durham City MP Mary Kelly Foy has written to Durham's major letting agents as the student housing crisis continues to unfold in the city.
The letter co-authored alongside the President and elected officers of Durham Students Union calls on the letting agents to urgently "make changes to the student rental process" to ensure students do not suffer "undue stress".
Ms Foy said in the letter that "The current bulk release of lettings so early in the year creates panic amongst the student body, requiring undergraduates, many of whom have barely had any time to settle into life in a new city, to sign legally binding contracts with little time to make a considered and informed choice."
In addition, rents are reported to be spiralling in the city, with properties now often costing students between £170- £200 per person per week. In the letter Ms Foy asks that letting agents provide their account of the causes of the unfolding crisis and respond to the following questions:
- Why are student houses released so early and in bulk, especially given the previous suggestion under the landlord accreditation scheme that houses would be held until later in the academic year?
- Why are housing costs rising so dramatically?
- How are students being outbid on properties that they believed they had secured, and what processes can be put in place to offer some guarantees to students seeking housing?
- What processes are in place to monitor the quality and condition of student properties?
Speaking about the housing crisis in the city, Ms Foy said: "What we are witnessing in the Durham rental market is ludicrous. I have been contacted by huge numbers of students and their parents who are utterly dismayed by the chaos of spiralling rents and limited availability of housing.
In addition to writing to letting agents, Ms Foy will be meeting with the university Vice Chancellor today to put the concerns of students and residents to them directly. She added that the current situation is not sustainable, and they need to work together urgently to resolve this issue.
A spokesperson for Durham University said: "We have reassured all our students that we will support them in finding suitable accommodation either in College or elsewhere.
"We cannot exert control over the private rental market. We have seen some deplorable behaviour by letting agents and landlords in Durham, putting up prices above inflation and releasing properties much earlier than usual.
"We have put in place a package of financial support to help students through the cost of living crisis. Like many other UK universities we were obliged by the late change in A level grade boundaries to take in a larger than usual student cohort in 2021. We reduced our intake this academic year.
"We also join Universities UK in calling for increased hardship funds and grants for UK students nationally."
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