City must 'think beyond student accommodation'

COUNCIL LEADER SAYS ATTENTION MUST SWITCH TOWARDS 'WIDER HOUSING NEED'

- By JOE LOCKER Local democracy reporter

THE time has come for Nottingham to start pivoting away from student accommodation, the city council’s leader says.

For years the city has managed to avoid student housing crises as seen in areas such as Durham and Bristol, largely due to a policy encouraging the building of purpose-built student accommodation.

While the building of new student blocks has proven contentious, particularly in some planning committee meetings and among communities, the Labour-led council's planning director, Paul Seddon, said the policy was “finally paying off”

The council says that, over the last three years, more than 550 shared student homes have returned to residential and family use as a result of the policy.

However, the council’s leader, Councillor Neghat Khan (Lab), now says vacancy rates in purpose-built blocks are around 11%.