A developer wants to knock down two cottages next to Falmer Station and build a new block of nine student flats.
Pinnervale Investments has submitted an application for a new two to four storey block of student accommodation, which would house 24 students.
The apartments would have two to four bedrooms each, with shared kitchen and living spaces as well as plenty of outdoor garden space and bicycle parking.
The cottages it would replace are currently being used as houses of multiple occupation (HMOs) for students, and are sandwiched between another block of student housing and a pedestrian underpass under the A27.
The planning statement says how the proposed building helps to develop the city’s “sustainable transport corridor and academic corridor”.
The environmental impact of the building has been considered, with improved energy performance, water consumption and car-free design as priorities.
With neither local universities indicating planned increases in student numbers, developers say that rather than enabling an influx of students, this building would reduce pressure on the private housing sector.
The application can be found on the council’s planning portal by searching for reference number BH2022/01883.
Where is the evidence for this oft-repeated mantra by developers, (who would say that, wouldn’t they), and even by council people that more and more student blocks reduce the pressure on private housing?
Is there any evidence?
What do you mean?
There’s only a finite number of students. It’s pretty much self-explanatory that they all need somewhere to live, and those not in student accommodation must necessarily be looking at private rentals.
It might be that I’ve missed something in your comment, though.
You have missed something. One of the unis closed their Eastbourne campus and brought it back to Brighton, so presumably the students had to go somewhere, which may well be here.
I don’t know the actual stats or details, because there don’t seem to be any, but anecdotal evidence suggests that purpose-built student accommodation is more expensive than a house-share and a lot of students prefer the latter for financial and freedom reasons.
So, all I am saying is that comprehensive research needs to be done, and quickly, as to whether these purpose-built student blocks (of which there are many) are fully occupied and what the rental payments are by comparison to a shared house. That’s all. Perhaps a big survey of students in blocks and those in shared houses might tell us something, but nobody seems to do that.
More student accommodation = more votes for the Greens = more vanity projects and more cycle lanes.
And this hilarious statement deserves an award for gobbledygook:-
The planning statement says how the proposed building helps to develop the city’s “sustainable transport corridor and academic corridor”.
Why even print this we all know that anything for student accommodation gets the green flag How much in community charge does the council receive from all the student accommodation built for them in Brighton
Universities are in a bit of a strange place this year when you look at the intakes. Pandemic gave everyone higher grades through teacher marking, and this is translated into more students applying for top-tier and mid-tier universities. Also, there’s a significant drop in college-leavers attending university, with more mature students applying. Makes for an interesting demographic, and you’ll see the Universities change their offerings and sale pitches accordingly.
I live in the house/cottage attached. They are wanting to demolish half of a semi detached house and leave me in a tunnel. These developers do not look after the students they already have in the residential houses (which they choose to wrongly call HMOs) planning laws stop demolishment of residential houses, trying once again to pull the wool over planners eyes. They show my house as a brown box without windows on thier plans. My house in the future will be used as a safe house for homeless pregnant women via a trust.
Hi Karen,
Can you get in touch with felice@brightonandhovenews.org about this please? Thanks.
Felice.
It’s about they started doing something about the lack of Social Housing, not everybody can afford to buy their own home.