Over 500 student bedrooms remain empty in Camberwell – over three-and-a-half years after they were evacuated over fire safety concerns.
The News understands that King’s College London (KCL) university is in the process of appointing a development partner to begin repairs. However, no timescale has been given.
The delay comes as student housing charity Unipol warns that a lack of affordable student housing means the UK risks “losing a pool of future talent”.
In January 2020, KCL evacuated approximately 584 students living in four blocks after identifying fire safety concerns, understood to be cladding related. Students were moved into 4* hotels and offered compensation.
But as of September 2023, the Beech, Maple, Oak and Rowan buildings at 10 Champion Hill remain empty.
Another student accommodation building on the same site called the Platanes, a Grade II listed Victorian mansion with space for 155 students, is also empty. Despite this paper’s repeated inquiries, KCL has not said why or when it became empty.
So, in total, space for over 700 students is empty on the site.
With the academic year restarting this month, KCL has welcomed thousands more students, but some – particularly postgraduates – are struggling to find affordable accommodation.
Steven Suresh, President at the King’s College London Student Union (KCLSU), said: “It can be very tricky to find a proper place or proper student halls.
“We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and rents and expenses are absolutely sky-rocketing so at least having a place to say is a basic necessity.”
“Increasing the number of halls we have would greatly improve the experience students face with their accommodation,” he added.
Victoria Tolmi-Loverseed, Assistant Chief Executive at student housing charity Unipol said the “human cost” of an affordable student housing shortage was a loss of talent for the UK.
She said: “It means some students will look at the cost of living at university and say I can’t afford that. If you have a specialist course you want to pursue at university but you decide you can’t afford it, then we’re losing a pool of future talent for the country.”
Explaining the cause of the shortage, Ms Tolmi-Loverseed said: “Student numbers have grown significantly in the last couple of years and the supply certainly hasn’t matched that growth.”
Why does a student halls in Canada Water only have 11 per cent affordable housing?
While the number of UK students going to university is less than it was in 2020, rising demand is being driven by international students, mainly postgraduates on one-year courses.
According to the Higher Education Policy Institute think tank, international student numbers grew by some 276,110 between 2019 and 2022, a 72 per cent increase.
Ms Tolmi-Loverseed said this meant private developers were choosing to build “hi-specification, high-end” accommodation aimed at international students “some of whom have got quite good budgets”.
She said: “A lot of what gets built is driven by the private sector who are very keen to provide accommodation that is particularly attractive to international students, some of whom have got quite good budgets.
“So often what gets built is quite hi-specification, high-end housing which is quite expensive.”
She also said rising construction costs and soaring interest rates meant building affordable housing might not be “economically viable” for both private developers and universities to build affordable housing.
KCL was approached for comment.
This is outrageous . No doubt when repaired they will be repurposed as luxury flats