The recent LUSU Council contained a discussion about rent increases. This dialogue around the rent topic began with the agenda for the inquorate General Meeting of Week 1, which contained a discussion point with regards to rent, raised by student Chris Witter. It bemoaned the fact that each year rent increases are higher than students can afford. As the meeting was inquorate the points were only discussed and it was agreed that this discussion would continue on to LUSU Council.
Following this, SCAN undertook an investigation which found that students were “concerned about the eradication of affordable flats.” It also discovered that many of the increases were due to the cost of constant refurbishment of campus accommodation but that students “accept the notion of and the rationale behind the refurbishments taking place, but object to the resultant hike in their rent.”
Since the last LUSU Council where the rent increases were first brought up, the Full Time Officers have been lobbying the University against the increases. This meant that it was a key agenda point at LUSU Council on Friday Week 7, with The Director of Finance introducing a report on “the proposed increase in residence charges for 2013-14.”
According to the agenda, Ste Smith, LUSU President “suggested that the series of increases over the past few years meant that the cost of living on campus was becoming excessively high for students.” The agenda goes on to state that “it was noted that the University planned to provide a more affordable accommodation alternative in the future.”
