Shared responsibility

The expansion of university places, combined with a decrease in traditional halls of residence, has resulted in greater numbers of students than ever before renting flats from private landlords. In university towns and in the student quarters of our cities this has become a particular problem. The lifestyles of young people experiencing their first taste of freedom all too frequently clash with those of established residents, who are often elderly people and families with young children. Being close to a university used to mean living in one of the pleasanter parts of our cities. In some cases it has now come to mean the reverse.