About half of students surveyed across the country did not have their rental deposits returned when they were forced to leave their accommodation during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March.
A new survey by housing charity Threshold has found that 78 per cent of students are now worried about their ability to pay rent.
It also found that just over 20 per cent of those seeking accommodation for this academic year have been asked to pay four months’ rent or more in advance.
There’s a disconnect between the role of accommodation, access to meaningful college life and access to affordable education in the system which urgently needs to be addressed.
Chief executive of Threshold John Mark McCafferty says a deposit protection scheme needs to be introduced: “Half of the students surveyed reported that they didn’t have their deposits returned when they had to leave the rented accommodation at the beginning of lockdown in March.
“And when universities and colleges closed, many students were forced to move out of their accommodation with little opportunity to retrieve their belongings, so, we’ve been facing quite a challenging situation in the last six months.”
Commuting
The housing charity has said that student accommodation should be afforded special protections.
“There’s a disconnect between the role of accommodation, access to meaningful college life and access to affordable education in the system which urgently needs to be addressed,” Mr McCafferty said.
The housing charity has also warned that more students may be forced to commute to college due to an inability to pay rent this year.
“Across the country there is an increasing share of students that were effectively commuting and commuting quite sizable distances to universities,” Mr McCafferty said.
“The situation over the last six months will probably see an increase in the number of people who remain at home and commute large distances in order to access college courses.”
