Broke students and a broken student housing system
Posted on: Wednesday, February 12th, 2025
This week the GMSP, alongside the relevant student officers, visited student unions in Greater Manchester to speak to students about their housing. We brought along a poster with four sections: affordable; safe and decent; responsive; as well as private and secure. We asked students to put a sticker next to the section which they most wanted to improve with their housing. This task, and the conversations that happened because of it, revealed a lot about how students feel about their living situation. Read on to find out more.
Affordability
Affordability dominated discussions. Most students pointed to the fact that their loan is not enough to cover the cost of rent. For many, part time jobs are a necessity. The Sutton Trust details how 49 per cent of undergraduate students missed classes last academic year in order to do paid work, with 23 per cent reporting they have missed a deadline or asked for an extension in order to work. This issue is exacerbated in Manchester, as evidenced by the Office for National Statistics. Manchester is the second most expensive place to rent relative to wage. On average, 45.6% of income went towards rent in 2023. For context, the only place more expensive than Manchester to rent in is the borough Kensington and Chelsea. At the University of Manchester specifically, out of the 3563 students polled, 68.3% stated that they were concerned about rent.
Corroborating this, the affordability section of our poster received as many points as the rest of the three sections put together. One student explained how upsetting it was to be spending thousands on accommodation only for her landlord to ignore her when her shower or oven broke. International students are hit especially hard, they are subject to higher fees, not eligible for student loans, and their part time work during term time is capped at 20 hours a week. The international students who we spoke to explained what an isolating and stressful position this puts them in.
Overall, the picture is clear. Students are struggling more than ever to afford to live while in university.
Apathy
One of the most concerning aspects was the complacency in students. When asked about their living situation, they insisted that it was fine. However, when pushed it was revealed that they were living with a rodent problem or mould. One particular student said she loved her house, even with the sewage that kept mysteriously running down her garden wall. Another said she liked her landlord, but he never gave the legally required 24 hours notice before coming round. Once, he had even walked into a room when a tenant was undressing. She explained how this made it hard for her to relax in her own home. There seemed to be a consensus that this is just what student living was like. The GMSP is hoping that the Good Landlord Charter will set a better standard of living for students.
Ignorance
A common trend that we noticed was that when students were asked if they were renting, they would say that they weren’t renting, they were in university accommodation. It had not occurred to them that they were in fact paying for a service – housing. It was revealed that those renting from their University often did not realise that they were entitled to many of the same protections as ordinary renters. This is indicative of a larger issue, that students are more easily taken advantage of since this is often their first time renting. Landlords can take advantage of the fact that students do not have the means, support, or knowledge necessary to advocate for themselves. That is why it is so important that infrastructure like the Good Landlord Charter is in place to ensure students have a good quality of life.
The solution
The GMSP is working with the Mayor Andy Burnham to ensure the success of the Good Landlord Charter. The Charter is set to improve standards of housing for students by ensuring that landlords meet specific criteria which go beyond the minimum required by law. However, the Good Landlord Charter is ultimately voluntary. We want to show landlords that signing up is mutually beneficial: students get better housing and landlords who are signed up essentially get free advertising. Potential tenants will be more interested in landlords who are committed to the Good Landlord Charter.
Before the Good Landlord Charter is launched, the GMSP is trying to galvanise as many students as possible to put pressure on their landlords to sign up. At the same time, we want landlords to recognise the benefits the Good Landlord Charter can have for them. We have lots planned to achieve this aim, from flyering to documentaries to getting articles published.
If you have any housing stories you want to share, whether you are a student or a landlord, or if you want to get involved, please do not hesitate to get in touch!
