STUDENT Barry Will pays £450 a month in rent in St Andrews while the students who live next door in an identical three bedroom house pay £1500 a month – each.
The rent on the more expensive house, along with many more homes across Scotland, has risen by 100% because the 3% cap on rent rises can be ignored if there is a change in tenancies.
The result is that students especially, who generally take on new tenancies before the start of the new academic year, are being hit by huge increases as landlords try to maintain profits amidst the mortgage rate rises and cost of living crisis.
New data from lettings agency Citylets has revealed that the market rent rise on new lets is averaging 11.4% across Scotland. In Renfrewshire the rise as of April to June this year was as high as 17.7%, in Dundee it was 16.2%, in Edinburgh it was 15.1%, in Glasgow it was at 14.4% and in Aberdeen it was 13.1%.
However, Will said that in St Andrews many rent increases were even higher.
“In the worst cases we are hearing 50 to 100% increases in rent which is just pure exploitation,” said Will, who is president of the St Andrews Students’ Association.
He and his flatmate are lucky enough to have one of the cheapest rents in St Andrews at £900 per month but the three students next door are paying £4500 in total each month for their former council house.
While first year students are guaranteed a place in halls at St Andrews, the fees for these are the highest in the UK outside London, according to Will.
“There’s an 8.3% increase in student hall rent this year which is almost three times higher than the 3% cap on rents brought in by the Scottish Government,” he said.
While the effect of the rent cap “loophole” is being felt by people taking on new tenancies across Scotland, students in Glasgow, Edinburgh and St Andrews which have been suffering accommodation pressures for some time, are particularly badly hit and many are starting to commute to university rather than stay close by.
Will said the student accommodation crisis that plagued St Andrews last year had eased but was continuing to be a problem, especially for low income students, as both private tenancies and halls are “too expensive”.
“The sort of environment that is being created is one where the richest students live in town and the others stay outside which is just going to be another barrier to their success,” Will said. “The university has managed to get more student housing in Dundee but it is still a very serious situation.
“I don’t have the official numbers but I know anecdotally that a considerable amount of people still don’t have a home. A lot of people in the private market are really struggling. They can’t afford halls so they are not applying there.”
Will said the Scottish Government had to bring in a policy to ensure the rent cap covers changes of tenancy.
He added: “The Scottish Government also needs to increase funding for students, otherwise the poorest ones are going to suffer the worst impact.
“The Scottish Government has a commitment to widening access and increasing the percentage of the most deprived students attending university but has put in targets with virtually no increase for funding for these students. If it actually cared for them we would see specific safeguards around housing for students.”
The rent cap should also be reintroduced for student halls, Will argued.
“Accommodation can’t be a profit money making exercise for universities,” he said. “Right now students are crying out for safe, affordable housing and even at its most functional level we are not seeing that.”
He said more government funding for universities would help ease the pressure on housing.
“There’s been a chronic lack of funding for universities in Scotland over the last decade which means the universities have no option but to grow and take on more feepaying students,” said Will. “If the Government fully committed to funding universities fairly then there would not be all these disastrous impacts on housing in university cities.”
The university said: “St Andrews currently provides more university-managed accommodation per head of student population than any other university in the UK, outside of the Oxbridge colleges (approximately 40%).
“Rents in halls and managed accommodation have risen this year by approximately 8%, to address major increases in energy, material and maintenance costs, and general inflation.
“It is standard for accommodation fees to increase in accordance with CPI (consumer price inflation) each year.
“Accommodation fees are set in consultation with elected student representatives. When the discussions began in October last year, CPI was at 11% and forecast to increase further.
“The Student President negotiated to bring the increase down to 8.3%, with a lower rise in Whitehorn Halls of 5%. Following negotiations with the Student President earlier this year, the University increased our Accommodation Award to £1750 from £1500 per student.
“St Andrews gives over £20 million a year to students in bursary and scholarship support, and we have more than trebled the size of our accommodation bursaries at St Andrews in recent years. Our bursary support follows the student, enabling access to the full range of accommodation in St Andrews. We try to ensure that our system is flexible to accommodate those who can afford to pay, while providing targeted support to students who need extra help. This system was designed by our own students.
“Our rents cover energy bills and Wi-Fi, and we are committed to providing a varied mix of accommodation types and prices.
“Our accommodation fees are generally below the level of those found in the private sector in St Andrews, and we have experienced a major increase in the numbers of returning students who are preferring to stay in halls than rent in the private sector.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The emergency legislation which introduced the rent cap applies to in-tenancy rent rises. This means that students, as with most other tenants, will have the protection of the cap as long as they retain the same tenancy. When any tenant takes up a new tenancy the cap does not apply.
“The emergency legislation is time-limited and extends only to March 2024 at the latest. The Scottish Government has consulted on further renting reform including rent controls and continues to develop proposals. Our review into purpose-built student accommodation, which considered issues including supply and affordability, has now concluded and we will respond to recommendations in Autumn.
“Ministers are also taking strong action to help students through the cost of living crisis and have confirmed an uplift of £900 to HE student support packages for 2023/24. This raises the package for Care Experienced, estranged students and those from the lowest household incomes from £8100 to £9000.”
