Our letter to Government: Increase support for students and accommodation providers impacted by Covid-19

Lydia Jones

Published Feb 11, 2021

Last week, the UK Government announced an additional £50 million of support for students on top of the £20 million provided in December. Whilst this funding is welcome, it does not match the scale of the crisis currently faced by students, accommodation providers and the wider higher education sector which they support. In light of this, today we have written to the Minister of State for Universities, Michelle Donelan. 

To get behind our cause and pledge your support, you can visit the #SaveOurStudents website or contact us at media@housemates.io.

Letter to Government

We are writing to you to express our concerns regarding the situation students, landlords and accommodation operators are facing due to Covid-19 and the need for further support, despite the recent £50 million of additional funding.

We welcome the additional support and believe it will be important to help protect ongoing work in widening access to education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, we remain concerned about the experiences current students are facing and feel this support is not proportionate to the scale of the challenges faced by students.

Students are dealing with the deep physical and psychological impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; losing family members and friends to the virus, losing jobs with often no protection from existing schemes, feeling isolated and disconnected from teaching staff, coursemates and friends, not having access to facilities, a chaotic shift to online learning with little notice and uncertainty about future prospects. 

Beyond the impact on their studies and careers, since being encouraged to return home for the winter break, the majority of students are now unfairly paying hundreds of pounds per month for private accommodation, as encouraged by the Government, but which they cannot return to.

Students are a unique section of society, with their own unique difficulties and requirements. They now need unique support to match.

It’s been almost 11 months since the furlough scheme was announced and this is set to continue until at least the end of April. Similar measures have protected leisure and hospitality businesses. The £22bn aviation sector has benefited from the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Finance Facility. The £80bn+ student sector now urgently needs targeted financial support.

The Government’s latest announcement asks all providers of student accommodation to make sure their rental policies have students’ best interests at heart and are communicated clearly, but this is vague and doesn’t support private operators and landlords who still need support to pay their own bills and investors if students aren’t paying them.

We believe the higher education sector could be a beacon of hope in response to this economic crisis, as it has been before. However, accommodation providers and landlords which support the sector need targeted financial support right now to put students first and ensure they themselves actually have a future beyond this pandemic. 

This sector starts and ends with students. Without providing further support the Government risks causing long-term damage for the entire HE sector, including student accommodation providers, as well as the regional economies they support, particularly in the Midlands, North of England, Wales and Scotland. The economic value of the HE sector cannot be understated, generating more than £73 billion a year in output for the British economy, contributing nearly 3% of UK GDP, and creating more than 750,000 jobs. ​In order to further the Government’s levelling up agenda, it is essential they safeguard the sector which drives economic growth and employment opportunities across the North of England. 

The Government must act now to provide accommodation operators with the financial support they need to cover these costs so that they can then support their student tenants with rent rebates or early-contract releases. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Students’ inquiry into tuition and accommodation costs during Covid-19 made a number of sensible and constructive recommendations to Government. Most notably, the ability for landlords and PBSA’s to rent out properties to non-students, allowing for students to be released from contracts early, resulting in a mitigation of the financial burden of accommodation costs and a freeing up of housing stock not being used. 

Alongside this, we would urge the Government to make firm commitments to increase the student hardship fund, means-tested assistance grants and make provisions for additional support to landlords and Purpose-Built Student Accommodation providers. 

We look forward to working with the Department for Education to bring forward constructive proposals that will benefit both students and accommodation providers. As such, we hope that you will provide us with the opportunity to brief you, or your officials on the issues facing the sector and the proposals we suggest would allow the HE sector and associated industries to thrive post-COVID. 

Signatories

  • Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath
  • Allied Students Accommodation
  • Leeds University Union
  • London School of Economics Students’ Union
  • Ravensbourne Students’ Union
  • Liverpool John Moores Students’ Union
  • UniTaskr
  • SRS Graduate Recruitment Consultancy
  • Paperound
  • Seed Marketing Agency
  • Umii
  • BibliU

Pledge your support

We would welcome further support from student-focused businesses and organisations. If you are interested in supporting us, please contact media@housemates.io. You can also visit the #SaveOurStudents website.

Published Feb 11, 2021