UoN students are starting a rent strike and demanding a 40 per cent rent reduction

Nottingham University students living in halls are going on rent strike and are demanding a 40 per cent rent reduction for everyone who stays at uni.

The campaign, “Notts Uni Rent Strike”, is led by a group of students who feel as though the university have completely overlooked students, particularly during periods of quarantine and self-isolation.

The organisers told The Nottingham Tab: “We’ve been cheated and scammed by halls and the University of Nottingham. All of this has been hugely damaging to our mental health as a whole, and we need to take action.”

Rent strikes have been particularly prominent at various universities this term, such as Bristol, Cambridge and Manchester. At Bristol for example, over 800 students signed up to withhold over £1 million in rent strike.

Strikers at Nottingham are demanding the following:

1. No-penalty contract releases with full deposit refunds for anybody who wishes to move out of halls before the end of their contract

2. 40 per cent rent reduction for the entire year for those who decide to stay

3. No repercussions for those involved with the rent strike

The organisers released the following statement alongside their demands for the uni: “Students have been promised 50/50 in-person / online teaching and have instead been met by nearly completely online courses and over-priced accommodation which, in some cases, fails to meet the basic terms outlined in their contracts.

“Isolating students were being deprived of basic amenities such as clothes washing/drying rooms, and had to go many days with no food. The university wants us gone on the 9th December, but aren’t we still paying rent for that period? We are paying thousands of pounds, and for what? To be treated like cash cows and told we’re the problem? No!”

Organisers have also created a guide on how to participate in the strike action, informing students that they must with-hold their January term rent until demands are acknowledged and met by the university, share the pledge with fellow students and sign the google form linked.