This week we dive into housing – an extra blog post for you all!

The reason for it is that we have exciting news to announce. As of this year, for the first time after literal years of lobbying for improvement in this space, the university has taken a first step in the right direction around support for students renting in the private market.

The vice-chancellor of the university has approved funding to support estranged students and students that are care leavers in paying for the premium fee that guarantor scheme services charge. This means that these groups of students will not see additional financial constraints as a result for being unable to come up with a UK based guarantor. These are fantastic news!

If you’re wondering about the rest of our student community that can’t access UK based guarantors, we’re still working on achieving more wins in that space. The university does currently suggest a few guarantor schemes that might be slightly more affordable than the ones out in the market. So, if you’re looking at a guarantor scheme, I would recommend you use one of the ones in this link: https://www.bath.ac.uk/guides/guarantor-schemes-for-private-accommodation/.

The final bit is to just show you how long we’ve had accommodation related issues on the top 10.

· 2010/2011: We will strive to increase the support and information available to students on housing issues.

· 2011/2012: housing was one of the ten themes on the list.

· 2014/2015: Develop a housing guarantor scheme for international students.

· 2015/2016: Lobby for improved housing standard.

· 2016/2017: Campaign for sustainable student recruitment policies in relation to housing availability.

· 2023/2024: Develop a housing strategy covering both University managed and private accommodation.

· 2024/2025: Develop a student-friendly approach to private housing, protecting student rights as tenants; and develop a housing strategy and action plan which covers both university managed and private accommodation.

Hopefully, this shows how hard we work to get student issues in front of the university and, though sometimes slow, progress is usually achieved with the things we put on the Top 10. Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns on this or any of the other Top 10.

See you for another update next week, right in the middle of the election madness. In the meantime, stay warm and be kind to one another!

Much love,

Jiji x