UCL’s rip-off rent is the priciest in the country

Rents for UCL residences are officially the highest in the UK.

Inflation-busting annual rises have seen average prices soar above the basic maintenance loan…making a mockery of union promises to put an end to rip-off rents.

You’re not even allowed out onto the balcony

The rent on a basic single room in halls has soared 6% to £157.77 per week, while an increase of 5.3% means that students will be forced to part with eye-watering weekly charges of over £200.

Lucky newbies who’ve managed to secure the golden ticket of a single at Ramsay will be forced to fork out an outrageous £203.70.

And now UCL is finally at the top of a league table…though the hand-wringing of campus bosses means that it’s tied for the UK’s most expensive uni with Imperial according to stats released by HSBC.

Despite their claim that accommodation is “affordable”, college are racking up prices at four times the rate of inflation.

Even with the substantial additional allowance for London students, this comfortably outstrips the average maintenance loan from Student Finance – which is set to increase by a paltry 1%.

That might cover a week

UCL Residences can’t exactly claim to be hard up, either, as they manage to stuff their already swollen coffers by extracting £56 a night from tourists and visitors over summer.

Strand Poly, meanwhile, have finally got something right – the price of a standard room at King’s is only £127.50 a week.

David Dahlborn, UCLU’s Halls & Acommodation Representative, was quick to hit out against extortionate rent increases, saying that: “high rents contribute to making higher education even more inaccessible for students.”

“…The fact that the annual rent for UCL’s cheapest twin rooms by far exceeds the highest possible maintenance grant is a clear case in point.”

In the light of his ambitious and lightly substantiated manifesto promise to stop ‘rent profiteering’ once elected to the part-time union position, however, it’s unclear whether the union have anything more to offer than good intentions.

Dahlborn went onto say that “Over the coming year I will be demanding that halls be run on a non-profit basis.”

“That is that the university should charge no more for halls than the running costs.”

Though UCL Accommodation Services did not comment when asked about rent increases, it’s fair to assume that they won’t be at the negotiating table with David for a particularly long time.

Cheaper rents at other Russell Group institutions call into question the wisdom of paying a premium for a mouldy gulag in NW1.

Somebody call Amnesty International

A week out in the sticks at Camden’s Ifor Evans at £168 could buy you a fortnight in Newcastle, where the average rent is just £84.

Oxford’s rents are the most expensive outside the capital, but that college you spent sixth form dreaming about would have only charged you about £137 a week.

To add insult to injury, this year’s freshers won’t even be able to numb the pain at Moonies.