9,000 student bed shortfall in city

BIRMINGHAM has a shortfall of nearly 9,000 student bed spaces, a report has revealed.

The number of full and part-time students at the city’s five universities has increased by more than four per cent in three years.

It has been calculated that there was a demand for 36,000 bedspaces in 2017/18 against a supply of 27,000, although that figure falls to 20,000 when removing accommodation under construction or merely benefiting from planning consent. There were 68,000 fulltime students that year.

Most of the remaining cohort either lived with their parents or in their own home.

Of the five universities, the University

of Birmingham had the most full and part-time students in 2017/18 (34,000), followed by Birmingham City University (24,000), Aston University (14,000), University College Birmingham (5,000) and Newman University (2,760).

The report was presented to the city council’s planning committee.

Cllr Martin Straker Welds said: “In a perfect world you wouldn’t have an over-concentration of students in one area and you also want to make sure those students have places they can stay because they are an incredibly important part of the population in Birmingham even if they are not necessarily here their full lifetime.”

Cllr Gareth Moore called for the next report to detail the occupancy rates at purpose-built student accommodation in Birmingham.

He said: “Anecdotally from students and friends I know, there is a certain trend to move away from purpose-built student accommodation because it is quite frankly becoming too expensive.

“I know several friends who have had to go back to live with family elsewhere in the West Midlands because it’s no longer affordable and there are some people who have abandoned purpose-built student accommodation in the city centre to live in HMOs (house of multiple occupancy) in Selly Oak and commute because it’s actually cheaper.”