by Roger Mortimer
It is almost 3 years since RCAS began to take an active interest in issues arising from shared occupancy houses, very largely student, in our area. It has been a time consuming subject and we now feel enough has been achieved to be able to put it on the back burner. So this is an appropriate time to summarise what has happened and how members and residents can respond to student housing issues in future.
The term ‘studentification’ was coined in a report by UniversitiesUK. This covers the effects on local communities of the huge growth in student numbers over the past 10 years. (The number of full time undergraduates at Bristol’s universities increased by over 20% between 2001 and 2006.) This has led to some streets and areas being dominated by student houses, accentuating the inevitable stresses arising from the different life styles of students and more permanent residents. This is unfortunate when our area has provided a temporary home to many generations of students, with generally good relationships prevailing.
This situation is common to all university cities and RCAS is part of the National HMO Lobby, a very effective group. With the Councils in Leeds and Nottingham, and with the support of MP’s including our own, the Government has been persuaded to consider amendments to law that would require planning consent to change a family house into a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO). Consultation on how this would be done is expected shortly. However even if enacted this law will take many years to have much effect on the over-concentration of student houses in particular areas that is a root cause of problems, so dealing better with the symptoms has been the priority.
At the outset it was difficult in Bristol for the universities and Council to accept that there was a significant downside that had to be set against the many benefits that the universities and their students bring. Some national student organisations saw all comment as anti-student, and that students were being judged by the behaviour of ‘a small minority’. Fortunately all parties now have a better understanding of the situation and ways to improve matters. These are some of the outcomes:-
Information for students. Bristol University has updated and extended their information to provide very clear information and firm ‘advice’ for at the end of their first year as they prepare to leave university halls etc. Their excellent document ‘Moving on: a guide to community living’ can be seen on www.bris.ac.uk/accommodation. It covers relations with neighbours, noise and refuse arrangements, etc. We understand similar information is planned by UWE.
City Council Waste services have produced ‘fridge magnet’ versions of their refuse regime for distribution to student houses. There is now very little excuse for students to abuse the waste collection services any more than the rest of the population!
Community liaison. Bristol University has also set up a Community Liaison Group, which meets 6 monthly to discuss common issues. This Group involves university Accommodation Officers, residents groups, student representatives, council waste services, police etc, and has made a promising start. (RCAS Committee would welcome a volunteer to attend these meetings.)
Dealing with problems. Bristol University has been funding special call outs of refuse collectors to deal with refuse and unwanted goods left in the street when houses are vacated. They have continued to respond to individual complaints from residents concerning noise, parties and anti-social behaviour. (Contacts – Bristol Uni – Nicola Minton 0117954 5750 Nicola.Minton@bris.ac.uk. UWE- Heather Thomas 0117 328 1366 Heather.Thomas@uwe.ac.uk )
They do however expect that residents will have tried to sort out such problems direct with students before calling the Accommodation Officer. This approach is also assumed in the RCAS ‘Student welcome’ leaflet that is now available for the third year.
‘Student / Resident Relations Study’. Set up by the Council in January 2007 this exercise has been modestly educational for all parties, though laborious in approach. By mapping student homes it graphically confirmed the concentrations (studentification) of some areas. It has still to issue its conclusions and suggested actions.
Street scene. A new phrase that covers our immediate environment. It includes damage caused by scruffy frontages, litter and abuse of the recycling and waste system, typically involving bins left out . All the information and polite encouragement sometimes fails to be heeded and reporting persistent offenders to the Council (Customer Services) is needed. RCAS has produced a Street Scene Report pro-forma for use by residents as an alternative to phoning 922 3838.
Landlords and their agents. The approach and management ability of property owners and their agents has a considerable bearing on the impact of their tenanted property on the street. The best present tidy frontages, with room for all bins, and appear to select tenants with care and keep a close eye on their property. They help to ensure that regulations are followed and respond to problems raised by neighbours.
Unfortunately too many deny any responsibility for the way their property is used and appear uninterested in the appearance of their asset. For this reason, with CHIS, we have published an Open letter to student landlords, suggesting that it is in their interest to manage their property well, and in everyone’s interest for landlords, students and local residents to co-operate on a day to day basis. This document includes a table suggesting how all parties including residents can help. This initiative was suggested by Bristol University Accommodation Office, who will be distributing the letter to landlords with whom they are in contact.
Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO). During this period BCC Housing Department has implemented the new law that defines HMO and requires only the larger ones to be Registered. Many student properties are therefore not registered. In any case the law is aimed mainly at the safety of tenants – not the amenity of neighbours. However it does mean that the name and address of landlords can be found on the Council’s Register.
RCAS future role. A watching brief, with members encouraged to use the information, contacts and tools provided to deal with any problems. But please keep RCAS informed of experiences so that we can consider whether further involvement is needed.
We reported in March and June 2007 on our study of the impact of student houses in parts of our area, and our attempts to get recognition from Universities and Council of the downside for residents. The Council organised meeting with the universities in February, which did not involve residents. Our separate communications with the Universities did not lead to any visible movement.
Spurred on by complaints by members about a spate of noisy student parties and ‘end of year’ debris from student houses we produced a paper, ‘IMPROVING THE RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT of areas with a large student population’. (See below to download this paper) This contains constructive suggestions about what all parties involved – Universities, City Council, students, student landlords/managing agents, and residents could do to improve matters. This was sent to local Councillors, Council Officers, our MP and our two Universities.
We are pleased to report that RCAS has now met both Universities, and in July attended an initial meeting organised by the Council’s newly appointed Street Scene Enforcement Manager. Inevitably the focus is on the symptoms rather than the basic causes such as streets dominated by student houses as shown in our report on Studentification (see below).
The Universities have agreed to rewrite, strengthen and improve the frequency of their advice to students about living in the community. Special arrangements to deal with the end of year rubbish from student houses are being planned.
All parties agreed that while every attempt should be made to appeal to the common sense and goodwill of students it was essential that effective sanctions were available. In this connection all wanted to see the Noise Control team better resourced. This would provide more cover, so that residents do not find that ‘no one is available’ while they are being deafened.
We all recognised that students and longer term residents coexist reasonably happily for most of the time. However with nearly all properties having a new set of students every year there is a fair chance of having ‘problem neighbours’ from time to time. It was felt that some landlords and their managing agents did the absolute minimum, avoiding responsibility for such matters as gardens, refuse disposal and noisy tenants.
For our part, RCAS has produced a ‘Welcome to the RCAS area’ leaflet. This gives a little history of our area, outlines RCAS aims and provide local information and contacts. It also explains the desirability of consideration of the needs of neighbours. We hope members will give leaflets to each year's new student residents in their street.
You may download it here (PDF format) STUDENT WELCOME LEAFLET
Please email me or telephone 0117 9240136 if you want printed copies.
As a member of the National HMO Lobby RCAS is aware of the progress made by cities such as Leeds in dealing with the nation wide issue of studentification, and will be pressing Bristol Council to develop similar policies to redress the imbalance that has arisen.
HMO
The new requirement for student houses with 5+ inhabitants to be Registered as a House in Multiple Occupancy (HMO) under Housing Act 2005 is basically intended to assure the safety of tenants. However it may drive out the most irresponsible landlords and should raise the standard generally.
For this reason we welcome the new Registration system. However not all candidates for Registration may be known to the Housing Department. So RCAS has been assembling lists of what are known to be or appear to be student houses. These are being forwarding to the Council.
If you have student houses in your street please give Roger Mortimer the house numbers (no other detail needed).
The University of Bristol and UWE are supporting the Council in an initiative to deal with the extra rubbish and debris that arises when student houses are vacated at the end of the year. This includes accumulated refuse, discarded belongings, broken furniture etc. This should be disposed of by the departing students or by their landlords, but often remains disfiguring our streets for some time.
The University has produced a guidance document which you can see, download
and print here
. The
document contains a City Council phone number to call to have rubbish
collected; there is also a page on the City Council's website where you can,
rather helpfully, complete a form to report cases of fly-tipping. Rather
less helpfully, the address to this page (the URL) is 152-characters - yes,
that's one hundred and fifty-two - characters long! This must be some
kind of a record. To save wear and tear on your keyboard and your
fingers, here is a shortcut:
Report Fly-Tipping
Your feedback from the use of this service would be appreciated -
rogermortimer@jwmmail.net
Further reading - click on each heading to download these files (PDF)
OUR CHANGING ENVIRONMENT – Roger Mortimer's 2004 guide to the Planning issues surrounding HMOs and the loss of family homes to letting properties for short-term residents, particularly students.
STUDENTIFICATION REVIEW 2006 - A statement by RCAS submitted to the City Council and the University.
IMPROVING THE RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT of areas with a large student population. A list of possible action by all parties, based on RCAS's understanding of the problems experienced by members.