Why are we all powerless to stop city’s student flat boom?
LIVING in Cardiff there a few guarantees.
Your rush-hour train will be overcrowded, you will see kids doing wheelies in the road and you’ll have been woken up by a seagull at least once.
In addition to these, there are a few new things you can now add to the list.
Firstly, that every two months or so, Cardiff council will approve another block of “luxury” student flats.
Secondly, that this approval will be met with outcry and fury.
“Why the hell do they keep building these things?” people will ask.
In recent years this is often followed by the news that the developer can’t find enough students to fill those flats and are applying for a temporary change of use so other people can be housed there.
The first thing people do is blame the council for approving these buildings. Especially when there is a seeming lack of demand for the ones we already have.
So what can be done to stop the relentless charge of this purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA)?
A bit of investigation has shown that, despite being everyone’s favourite punching bag on the issue, Cardiff council really can do nothing to stop these blocks being built.
So why is that?
The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 governs planning rules and a council is not allowed to consider the market when looking at an application.
This means that if the council receives yet another application for a student block, they can’t just say: “Nope, we have enough of these.”
But what if they did? What if they just said: “The buildings we’ve got look like Soviet-era vomit and no one wants to live in them – no more!”
Well, as satisfying as it would be to do that, it would ultimately end in the council (and therefore us) being out of pocket.
If a council refused plans, the applicant could appeal to Welsh ministers.
The local authority would lose because, according to the law, it is not allowed to consider if there is a demand in the market for a development. Its refusal would be overturned and the council would have to pay the applicant’s costs (as well as its own).
That is taxpayers’ money gone, for nothing.
I spoke to Cardiff council and it said appeal costs vary based on complexity but in the region of £50,000 per case is standard.
So if the law is preventing councils from stopping PBSA developments, who can change it? Planning is a devolved issue so, so the Welsh Government can.
I visited the Senedd (or whatever they are calling it now) and asked if the Welsh Government would consider amending the law to stop the student flat bubble. The response I got back surprised me because it was almost like it had no idea what the law was.
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “Authorities need to understand their local housing market and the factors influencing housing requirements in their area in order to plan for an appropriate mix and number of housing developments.
“Where relevant, this would include taking account of the need for purpose-built student accommodation. “Authorities should also take into account the planning impacts arising from an oversupply of a particular land use, such as student housing, when revising their Local Development Plans and determining planning applications.”
Erm what? Councils literally can’t take into account need when approving PBSA.
So I checked with council and planning experts and they all confirmed our lawmakers are mistaken.
I then went back to the Welsh Government and explained this. About an hour later I received a call to say its statement still stood.
It is absolutely bizarre. I will be the first to admit (having tried to get my head around it) that planning law is a quagmire but the fact our devolved government didn’t seem to either care or understand its own remit was perplexing.
So yes, feel free to rage against Cardiff’s student flat boom. But your ire should be directed towards Assembly Members, not councillors. Not that they will necessarily understand why it is their fault.
Feel free to rage against Cardiff’s student flat boom. But your ire should be directed towards Assembly Members