In A University City, How Many Students Is Too Many?
A letter to The News from the PDPLA about the current debate over student and HMO densities in the city.
There have been several letters recently about HMO"s in the city. On one side, we appear to have LibDem councillors trying to rally residents behind their 'anti-student/anti-student housing" war cry and on the other, there have been some very good factual letters such as the one from George Langton pointing out that most houses in the city have always been shared and the other from Joan Goldenberg which succinctly summarised both the benefit to the city that we gain from the student population and also, the pressures and costs faced by the typical landlord without yet more regulation.
As the local landlord association, we are obviously 'pro-landlord" but that does not mean any facts we share are in anyway less valid.
The University, today, is the lifeblood of the city - the navy and dockyard once were and maybe could be again, but today it is the student £ that sustains us, the student worker who looks after us in pubs, restaurants, shops, bars, cinemas and many, many other places and hopefully it will be some of those students who use their skills to build businesses that sustain us in the future.
We have a 'city university" - it is not hidden away on some campus but an integral part of where we live and work. That has many benefits and some disadvantages, but it is not something we are going to change.
There are around 22,000 students and the vast majority live in the most densely populated wards of the city - central Southsea, St Judes and St Thomas. Those 3 wards have a total population of around 47,000 people. There are lots of new student halls rooms being built - too many of too low a standard and at rip off prices, taking advantage of students directly and the city indirectly, in our view - but let"s say there are 8,000 of these halls rooms when all the developments are complete. That still leaves 14,000 students living amongst and with 35,000 non-students in the south west of the city.
That is 1 in 3 people in 'ordinary housing" or nearer 1 in 2 when you include student halls.
All of this misplaced rhetoric about 'mixed and balanced communities" and no more than 10% HMO"s in any one place is misplaced and wrong. Mixed and balanced is '1 in 3" else we risk damaging the University and our economy. Lobbying to stop HMO"s being enlarged simply means that instead of 1 HMO housing 6-8 people we will need two HMO"s housing 3-4. Parking issues are nothing to do with students - I personally have 15 student tenants and only 1 has a car which he left at home, not different to most years. The parking issues around Fawcett Rd are caused by staff at local schools and businesses, not students. Rubbish? In North End Colas come into the front garden, pick up the dustbin, take it out and empty it. In Southsea, unless it is the correct black bag in just the right place, don"t expect it to be collected. Council tax? Yes students are exempt but the council is reimbursed the equivalent of a Band D council tax payment for every 5 exempt students by Central Government under the Formula Grant calculation - so Portsmouth does not lose out.
So please, please can our councillors stop being so divisive and perhaps start helping people to live together in the 'mixed and balanced" communities we all want and need.