We need to talk about the price of university accommodation in Liverpool because it’s absolutely fucking ridiculous
And the situation is only getting worse with Carnatic being demolished
Sam MilneFirst year at university is a fantastic experience for many of us, it's our first taste of freedom, we can go out as much as we want, and get home as late as we want. Imagine, however, if that year was ruined for you because of serious debt – and we don't mean you being £200 into your overdraft because the bank of mum and dad hasn't transferred you this month's allowance yet. I mean legitimately not having enough money to eat, debt to the point where it is affecting your mental health. Unfortunately, that is the life some students at UoL are at risk of, because of the ridiculously high cost of university accommodation.
For the 2019/20 academic year, the cheapest university accommodation at UoL is a single bed at Melville Grove, for £138.46 per week. This works out as £5,399.34 for the year. It is ridiculous that this is the cheapest university accommodation on offer at Liverpool, and there's only limited space – around 400 beds.
The average weekly cost of rent in university accommodation is £157 a week. Shelter, the housing and homelessness charity, define "affordable rent" as rent that is 35% of income. For the average rent at UoL accommodation to be "affordable" in the eyes of a homelessness charity the student would require income of £448.57 a week – that's over £23,000 a year.
The cheapest rent in UoL halls for next year is £138.46
University of Liverpool has the second most expensive "cheapest room" in uni halls across the entire Russell Group. The cheapest UoL accommodation is more expensive than its equivalents across all Russell Group universities, bar LSE. This means, you can find cheaper accommodation at University College London than you can in Liverpool, despite average rent prices in London being over four times average rent prices in Liverpool. How can our university think this is acceptable?
The cheapest rent at University of Manchester is over a grand cheaper per year than UoL
The ridiculously high rent prices at University of Liverpool are at risk of putting students from lower income backgrounds off choosing to study at our university, which is unacceptable. Going to university should be accessible to all students, and rent costs of halls should not be something that a student has to consider when making the decision about where to study.
This is why The Liverpool Tab are officially endorsing the Guild's "Cut The Rent" campaign. The campaign is asking for three key changes. It calls for; a real lasting cut to the rent in university accommodation; a clear and transparent rent-setting process with maximum student representation; and finally, an accommodation strategy that puts impact on living standards and equality at it's heart.