The Guardian has story on buy-to-let and studentification in Nottingham
No danger of a hackneyed reference to the city or a balanced assessment of the impact institutions make here:
Nottingham’s forest of housing despair
Landlords aiming to make a fast buck out of a huge population of student tenants are taking a heavy toll on the city’s social fabric. Tony Levene reports from the front line.
The citizens of Nottingham are calling on the sheriff to take a leaf out of Robin Hood’s book and tackle the buy-to-let landlords who take homes out of the reach of ordinary families.
The city’s buy-to-let boom has created whole areas where local parents and young couples are outgunned financially by landlords, many of whom do not live there. But the city council intends to fight back. It is now demanding changes in the rules that would give it more power to control buy-to-let.
A tour of the city indicated that small-time landlordism and the transient student population it encourages have turned some areas into “tips” – overflowing wheelie bins and rubbish-strewn front gardens. “Buy-to-let has caused the physical degradation of the area. Landlords don’t clean up the mess of old furniture and disused pizza cartons, and the students, many from wealthy backgrounds, contribute no council tax,” says Lenton resident Maya Fletcher.
And so it goes on…
Interesting to note of course that the Guardian has on its website over 1,000 articles on buy-to-let. A fair proportion of these might be seen as promoting the fast buck idea which is now someone else’s fault.
I really don’t think any student should have to pay council tax as it would make uni elitist and more expensive.
To be honest I know that it is unfornunate that students have taken over Lenton but it has boosted local resident’s house prices and given them the possibility to move to better areas if students become too much.
There is no way to stop the tide of studentification so it should be more a case of working with the students to build a stronger community.
The University provides tens of thousands of jobs in and out of the uni and brings a range of investments and opportunities for local people and businesses in an area which was relatively impoverished before they moved in.
Studentification! i love it.
I agree with you Richard. I think that the fact that students have not had to pay council tax for so long has confirmed to me that it is not necessary.
Lenton is still such a lovely area, and the fact that there is so much student accommdation there doesn’t affect it adversely. If anything the area is more alive than it used to be, more people enjoying the local parks and spending money in the local shops!
Faye