Survey shows that 65% of students have felt uncomfortably cold in their current accommodation, with more reporting damp and mould.
Image: Students support recent strike action by university workers, by Oojal Kour
The president of NUS Wales, Orla Tarn, has called for rent controls and for landlords to be held to account after a new survey revealed that 70% of university students are currently living with damp or mould.
“This data emphasises the devastating impact of energy poverty on a student population who were already being forced to survive a woeful rental market,” Tarn said.
“It’s unacceptable that it’s normal for students to be living in damp, mould infested homes and, to add insult to injury, rising rent means they are paying through the nose for the pleasure.”
The shocking findings come from a survey by Students Organising for Sustainability UK (SOS-UK).
Their Homes Fit for Study shows that in Wales:
- 70% of student respondents have damp/mould on walls or ceilings in their current accommodation.
- 54% said that feeling cold in their accommodation makes them feel miserable, while 46% said it has had a negative effect on their academic work.
- 65% of students have felt uncomfortably cold in their current accommodation.
Additionally, Freedom of Information data obtained by the group reveals that the majority of local council authorities across the UK are failing to enforce legal minimum energy efficiency standards for rented properties.
Thirteen councils have yet to issue a single fine to landlords for breaking the guidelines, leaving renters trapped in cold, damp properties that are too expensive to heat adequately during an ongoing cost of living crisis.
Larissa Kennedy, President of SOS-UK said that upholding energy standards was essential given the climate crisis and growing poverty.
“Poor housing should not be a ‘rite of passage’ that anyone has to go through,” Kennedy said.
Earlier this month, it was also revealed that Cardiff Council had not prosecuted a single landlord for unlawful eviction in 10 years.
In the Co-operation Agreement signed by the Welsh Labour Government and Plaid Cymru, a commitment was included to publish a White Paper which would explore “fair rents,” but concrete plans for rent controls have been voted down by Welsh Labour in the Senedd.
Welsh Labour minister Julie James MS has instead said rent freezes would have “unintended consequences,” warning against an apparently bleak future where Wales had less landlords.
But for students living in squalor, landlords are the problem.
