ONE politician’s embarrassing U-turn is another’s willingness to consult and listen to advice. Take your pick, but last week there was a quiet but significant change of heart by the Scottish Government in its approach to students. Or more specifically their flats.
Under the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Bill, landlords will soon no longer be able to end tenancies without the written agreement of the tenant, a measure designed to give the occupant security from arbitrary eviction, even if the length of time specified in the original contract has expired. So a 12-month lease it will only end if you give written consent at the end of the year.
The Scottish Government exempted student flats from the legislation but only those directly owned by the university or college; the clear intention was to apply the new laws to privately-owned purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), such as that run by businesses like Unite.
The different approach to student flats directly owned by the institutions and those by private companies was never properly explained, although there was a suspicion it was based on a dislike of the business model and a perception that PBSA providers were distorting town centre property development markets.
But as students are notoriously bad at tidying up loose ends, as well as the rooms themselves, there was a real possibility that when their courses finished they would disappear without formally agreeing to end their tenancies and make it technically illegal to re-let the rooms.
With 13,000 bedrooms affected it promised to create chaos for universities who rely on the easy availability of quality accommodation for the lucrative but highly competitive overseas post-graduate market. It also threatened short summer leases, not only vital for running summer schools but in Edinburgh an important source of accommodation for Festival and Fringe companies.
Thankfully, after the issue was raised in the Scottish Parliament by SNP MSP Jim Eadie, who chairs the infrastructure committee which scrutinised the bill yesterday, sense prevailed. Last week the Housing Minister Margaret Burgess told him that private PBSA would now be exempt, so fears about hundreds of unlettable rooms in big student blocks should now evaporate.
However, students in the ordinary private rental sector will still come under the same rules as everyone else, as will Edinburgh Festival companies on short lets in August. On one level this makes sense because it maintains consistency so landlords don’t need to apply two sets of rules depending on the tenant’s status, but the problem of students failing to sign off tenancies is real whether the room is purpose-built or in an HMO (house in multiple occupation).
Whether intended or otherwise, there could be a significant consequence. HMO landlords might become wary of letting to students if they are prevented from finding new tenants at the end of the academic year by bureaucratic oversight. Some people will welcome anything which makes HMOs, usually big tenement flats which were once family homes, less available to students because of the disruption they can cause to closes, but then where do they go?
There are approximately 150,000 university students in Scotland and it’s estimated around 50,000 international students come here every year, many of them on shorter programmes than formal degrees, but the universities only have 31,000 directly managed rooms. Apart from those still living with their parents the students have to live somewhere.
The potential for confusion is considerable if landlords are unsure if they can legally let out a flat even if the previous tenant has long gone, and reducing availability in HMOs will only increase demand for PBSA which operators are only too happy to meet if they can find the land upon which to build. And when sites come up, PBSA firms can outbid other developers, particularly housing associations seeking to build less lucrative affordable homes, thanks to guaranteed incomes from dense occupation.
Such has been their expansion that new private student developments are being met by growing opposition from locals who see them as a threat to their traditional communities, even on sites right at the heart of the university estates. It is a particular problem in Edinburgh’s Old Town and when the city’s planning committee rejected applications for two private student blocks, the decisions were overturned by the Scottish Government on appeal.
But on the advice of housing charity Shelter, Ms Burgess rejected the infrastructure committee’s recommendation to reconsider the inclusion of student HMOs in the new regulation and so it would be ironic if Shelter’s influence results in empty rooms in HMOs and even more blocks of student flats.
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