A Belfast Councillor has suggested at City Hall that the council stops cleaning Queen’s University Halls of Residence after it emerged the university was not paying rates on student blocks.
At the recent monthly meeting of the full Belfast City Council, SDLP Councillor Carl Whyte made the suggestion during a discussion over striking the yearly district rate, in which a split chamber gave sufficient backing to a tax raise of 7.99 percent for homeowners and businesses in the city - the largest hike in many years.
Elected representatives learned that the council had spent over a hundred thousand pounds in the past year on waste services at student accommodation, some or all of which were exempt from paying their local taxes. The council agreed to look at its role in providing waste services for the non rate paying halls of residence.
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Last week DUP MLA and finance spokesperson Gordon Lyons said he was questioning the Stormont Department of Finance, after it emerged no rates were being paid on 14 student accommodation blocks in Northern Ireland, including three privately operated properties, at a yearly cost of £2 million to the public purse.
Stormont officials have said the exemption was planned to be scrapped in 2018, but Covid and political logjam delayed the process. Queens said the exemption means prices for student accommodation are 25% lower than private student apartments in Belfast.
Councillor Carl Whyte told the City Chamber chamber this week: “In 2018 the Department of Finance rates review recommended that student accommodation exemption from paying domestic rates be removed. That cost Belfast a significant amount of money each year.”
He noted that student accommodation waste removal cost the council £117,135 per year, and added: “Because we are essentially subsidising student accommodation waste, that means there are 4,764 terraced houses with a £24 increase per year that is funding the collection of that waste.
“Queen’s University in its last balance sheet had a surplus of £18 million, with £75 million cash in the bank. I can’t think of a bigger bank account balance in Belfast than that. As well as an investment portfolio of £225 million.
“There’s £300 million sitting in the bank earning interest, and yet somehow it is exempt from paying rates on halls of residence. And before I hear that the (extra) cost would be passed onto students - they are able to pay the rates. And they should be paying the rates.”
Chief Executive of Belfast Council John Walsh said he was looking at the details of legislation surrounding the exemption, and the question of who should be paying for the waste services at the university.
Councillor Whyte, who graduated from and has worked for Queen’s University, said: “I propose there is a full engagement on the issue of university halls being exempt from paying rates and the fact we are subsidising the waste collection for students halls for £117,135. Even though the exemption they enjoy is supposed to be up to a million.”
He added: “We are paying to collect the waste of places that don’t pay rates. My (first) proposal, which I was told was not possible, was that it be taken out of the rates. Or that they just pay it themselves frankly.
“The Chief Executive is saying the legal opinion isn’t back as to whether we can do that. So I am therefore proposing that once we get that legal opinion, a legal process of engagement takes place immediately with Land and Property Services and the Department of Finance to see if it can be clawed back.” The Chief Executive said he was “happy” with the proposal, and the chamber agreed to pass it.
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