A new rental scheme for students aims to keep both residents with nine-to-five lifestyles and their noisy undergraduate neighbours happy
Students are usually the last people you want next door if you are trying to get a night's sleep. Their predilection for nocturnal lifestyles and partying can cause friction with those who have to abide by the more traditional nine-to-five working day.
But Brighton & Hove City Council and Brighton University believe they have come up with a solution to bridge the often acrimonious divide between "town and gown".
The two organisations are hoping that a jointly administered social lettings scheme, with stricter tenancy conditions focusing on reducing antisocial behaviour, will promote better integration between disgruntled residents and students – who it acknowledges play a vital part in the city's diversity and economic productivity. (Nationally, students spend £7.9bn on living costs, most of which goes back into the local economy.)
Brighton has one of the highest concentrations of students in the UK – 13% of the population – with numbers up from 25,589 in 1996 to around 34,000 now. Many are crammed into small pockets close to the city's two universities – Sussex and Brighton.
The large-scale movement of students to small enclaves has resulted in an array of anti-social issues, residents claim, including noise, poorly maintained properties, increased pressure on parking during term-time and litter.
One resident, Joy Panteli, was so desperate for some peace and quiet after months of noise from the five students living next to her semi-detached home that she was forced to sleep in her car. She decided to act, which resulted in the students being fined at Brighton magistrates' court last month. However, much to her dismay, they were not evicted.
"We're being overtaken by students in this part of the city," she says. "I felt that I had to follow it [enforcement action] through; there were parties every night and then one Friday evening, nothing, total silence. I was so unused to it, I honestly thought I was dead."
Panteli has now set up a community campaign for the right to a quiet night, and plans to work with campaigners, universities, landlords and councillors to prevent other residents experiencing noise and anti-social behaviour.
The council is confident that the city's first student housing strategy will go some way towards addressing concerns. The initial phase looks at better managing the distribution of student housing within the private sector through a "social lettings agency", while the second tightens the licensing regulations of houses in multiple occupation (HMO).
Brighton & Hove has little new purpose-built student accommodation because universities and commercial providers have failed to keep pace with the rise in student numbers. The private rented sector, however, has responded to the demand with a rise in the conversion of family housing to student HMO, resulting in the highest number in the UK – 15,000 recorded in 2007.
HMO licensing, brought in under the Housing Act 2004 to improve conditions for tenants, includes provisions for additional licensing areas where a need is identified. To try to balance communities, some councils have adopted capping and set up "areas of restraint" – one such is Nottingham, which has an HMO threshold of 25% per neighbourhood.
However, Brighton & Hove is hemmed in on one side by the sea and on the other by a national park, making dispersal solutions untenable. With no space to expand, areas close to the city's universities have become student property hotspots. Conservative councillor Maria Caulfield, Brighton & Hove cabinet member for housing, says: "A landlord can get more money from a combined rent of five students than from a family."
With the average weekly student room rate now £85-£95 per person, this lucrative market has in effect priced out young families and other social renters, radically altering the demographic of the community – to such an extent that some local schools are now undersubscribed.
The payback for landlords who sign up to the new social lettings scheme for students will be long-term contracts, guaranteed rent and full lettings management, similar to the lettings and management packages that many private property companies already offer.
Caulfield argues that it will be cheaper than existing commercial deals because the council scheme will be operated on a not for profit basis, with all proceeds ploughed back into the scheme.
Lindsay Duff, president of Brighton & Hove Estate Agents Association, is concerned that this may have an adverse effect on its members, many of which are small family-run firms already struggling with a downturn in business. "They could potentially lose money in what is a very difficult time," he says. He is also worried about who will manage the new scheme and the wisdom in setting up this kind of venture when councils nationwide are implementing cuts to essential services.
Caulfield insists there will be no initial extra costs, as the council has an existing housing strategy team providing a similar vetting process for the provision of temporary housing. She does, however, accept that, as the scheme expands, the need for extra resources will be inevitable. She has no qualms about undercutting local businesses: "I don't have a problem as many of those existing specialist student agencies are not providing the service the community needs: it's often a case of taking the money and running."
However, local resident William Fraser is bemused by Caulfield's assurances that the university already has an officer responsible for liaising with the community on behalf of students. He says: "We are all capable of finding out what day the bins need putting out. Students need to start taking some responsibility for their own actions. If they live in a community, irrespective of who's managing their property, they should respect it."
Case study: the students
Carly Clarke, Jessica Clements and Emily White are third-year students at the University of Brighton who live in an HMO – a five-bedroom student house in a residential area – and have had some low-level confrontations with the owner/occupiers next door.
"This is our third year and we have never been given any advance information on any of our neighbours or the community from landlords we have rented from," Carly says.
"It would probably have been good to have some idea of who we would be living next to and the area. That information works for both parties, so the idea of a joint social lettings scheme is quite a good one. It might not have changed our decision about moving in, but at least we would have been more prepared."
Case study: the resident
Elsewhere in the city, Zara Slattery, freelance illustrator and mother of three, has lived next door to a rented student property for the past six years. "I start to feel anxious around spring, the annual letting season, when landlords look to fill properties for the next academic year," she says.
"A group popped down to our garden last week to introduce themselves as possible neighbours. My response of: 'We're a family of five, we are quite noisy but you won't be' was met with a stunned silence. I didn't intend to scare them, merely alert them to the fact that they would be living next door to a family that – although we might have a higher-than-average noise level during daylight hours – is not disrespectful or antisocial.
"We've been lucky compared to some. We've only had one set who behaved particularly badly: we were told on returning home one new year they had had a party and had been urinating down our stairwell. I immediately went next door armed with a bucket and pair of rubber gloves, and asked one of them to come and clean it up, after which I fed her – she looked like she needed a good meal.
"A social lettings agency might work if it tackles general maintenance issues as well as anti-social behaviour. When properties aren't maintained, it drives down an area, which then attracts more transient people with no stake in the community. When you're raising a family or are elderly, knowing who your neighbours are and that you are part of a community matters."