No Room at the Inn? UoL Halls to Close
Garden Halls on Cartwright Gardens to close for two years, stoking worries about accommodation for new students.
The University of London’s Garden Halls on Cartwright Gardens are due to close next year for two years in order to redevelop the site- leaving a gap of almost 1000 beds for new students.
At the moment, there are no proposals for replacement accommodation which will be sorely needed to prevent freshers having to find private housing and being isolated from the rest of the student community.
ULU released a statement about the plans, saying:
“With demolition and reconstruction due to start this summer, this is very, very worrying indeed. If students are forced out into the private rented sector, having never lived in London before, many will be ripped off and socially isolated – either by landlords or by private student accommodation providers such as Unite. Students in London deserve better than this in their first year at university”
There are also worries about the funding of the project. The money for the redevelopment is coming from the private sector through the University Partnership programme. In return the private sector companies will be able to run the halls for the next 35 years, meaning that the whole of Garden Halls will become privatised until 2050.
ULU have said that they will urgently be seeking reassurances from UoL with regards to the nature of replacement housing, the funding of the project and the pricing of the new halls, which they say “must come down.”