The Lower Rents Now Coalition is an independent student group who
campaign for the desperately needed increase in affordable
student accommodation in St Andrews. At the moment, St Andrews
University has around 5800 undergraduates, but fewer than 496
affordable beds for them. This is far from enough, considering that
St Andrews is the most expensive town for student rent in Scotland,
and the fifth most in the entire UK. These large prices are bad not
only for students, but also bad for prospective students, and
other people who live or would like to live here.
For reasons like the extremely high rent here, and because St Andrews
has the lowest percentage of students from low income backgrounds
out of all Scottish universities, we want the university to increase the
number of affordable beds it offers to 1000. Instead, the university wants
to knock down Fife Park, which consists of 252 of the cheapest beds in town.
In its place, the university wants to construct 777 beds of 3-star accommodation
to rent out at the cost of £97-130 per week. (The 567 en-suite rooms in
replacement park will be similar to the university's hall DRA. Rooms
in DRA will cost over £130 per week for the year 2009–2010.) When
combined with other living expenses, even the lower estimate will mean
paying more than the maximum student loan each year. Yet St Andrews
University petitioned the Scottish Government to define such a hall as
"affordable".
Sadly, the university has consistently ignored and denied the
massive demand for affordable accommodation. The university completely
ignored a demonstration with over 110 people, which was held in May
2008 opposite a University Court meeting. A petition with over 1000
signatures calling for 1000 affordable beds was submitted the
university also in April or May 2008, but the denied its existence.
Instead, in June 2008, the university submitted its planning
application to the council. This design was unchanged since March,
and is completely unaffordable.
In 2004, the University of St Andrews promised “the retention of at
least 500 bed-spaces (c. one sixth of the total University complement) at
low cost”. The Fife Park redevelopment will see the university owning
around 3943 beds, a sixth of which is 657. Without an affordable Fife Park,
however, this promise will be broken, as the university will have only 464
affordable beds left. These affordable beds are so important because the
university offers no mid-priced beds.
Please take the time help us out. This could be done by e.g. writing a letter.
We meet weekly in the Whey Pat on Tuesdays at 5pm.
