Wonkhe SUs · The 2026 webinar box set
Making a difference on student housing
What to do about the student movement's most intractable issue, now the Renters' Rights Act is in force.
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We get behind the OfS's 87% satisfaction headline to what students actually report on quality, affordability and who carries the burden, and get on top of the Renters' Rights Act now Phase 1 is live – what changed on 1 May, the student carve-outs, and who got left out. We navigate the patchwork of rights, codes and Awaab's law, and turn the White Paper's statement of expectations into a local housing strategy, with worked examples from Nottingham and Manchester.
What we cover
- Behind the 87% – the quality issues most first years report, from damp and mould to missing smoke alarms and inaccurate pre-signing information.
- The unequal burden – first-in-family, disabled, Black and white students' very different experiences of cost, quality and fairness.
- The Renters' Rights Act – rolling tenancies, the end of Section 21, capped upfront rent, banned bidding wars, and the information sheet most students never got.
- The carve-outs – Ground 4A summer evictions from student HMOs, PBSA exemptions, and this summer's two-months'-notice trap.
- Five tiers of rights – halls, PBSA, student HMO, house or flat, and lodgers, each with different protections.
- Who loses – independent and estranged students, one and two-bed lets, and the homelessness pipeline.
- Guarantors – the cap on upfront rent, unregulated guarantor insurance, and asking the university to stand as guarantor.
- Awaab's law and the codes – strict repair timescales for the private sector, but not halls or PBSA, and three different codes of practice.
- From guidance to expectation – the White Paper's statement, NPPF paragraph 63, and making the UUK guidance effectively mandatory.
- The local playbook – Nottingham's Student Living Strategy, Manchester's Good Landlord Charter, and the tribunal routes that win rent back.
Things to read
- Student housing on Wonkhe – tag archive
- Accommodation on Wonkhe – tag archive
- Renter's Rights Act: What should have happened in May?
- Rights to exit student accommodation in England "early" as of May 1st 2026
- How to use planning policy and the Skills White Paper to make student housing better
- How to approach discussions on university rent setting
- What can SUs do to end homelessness?
- 24 things that SUs need to know about new rights in (some) university halls
- What SUs need to know about research into students' experiences of accommodation
- Awaab's law is coming. But not for students in halls
- Scotland's review of student accommodation emerges. Sort of
- Wales' international students may get a guarantor for their rent
- Guide to Renter's Rights Act (England) for students
- Model text for students on the transitional period in 2026
- Students live in terrible housing – can SUs do anything about it? (quality enforcement via your local authority)
- How to stop students being ripped off by the emerging guarantor market
- A beefed up weapon against rogue landlords – a guide to Rent Repayment Orders for SUs in England
- 30 student housing cases that made it to the first tier tribunal
- Who bears the price risk in student energy contracts matters more than the price
- How to create a student housing utopia
- Students and their homelessness are invisible in MHCLG
- What students' landlords are being told about the Renters' Rights Act, and why it matters for SUs
- 12 new Renter's Rights tricks landlords could pull (and what to do about them)
- Wonkhe briefings for SUs – Housing & accommodation