Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies on affordable student accommodation of the 3 December 2018 Huffington Post article entitled Exclusive: Cost Of Accommodation At Top Universities Soars By Up To 77% During The Past Decade.

Government does not control rents for student accommodation as higher education providers are autonomous bodies, independent from government.

The student funding system makes loans for living costs available as a contribution towards a student’s living costs while attending university. Living costs support increased by 2.8% for 2017/18 and 3.2% for the current, 2018/19, academic year. We have announced a further 2.8% increase for loans for living costs for the 2019/20 academic year – to a record amount.

All universities who wish to charge fees above the basic level are required to have an access and participation plan approved by the Office for Students. Through these plans, universities can fund bursaries for disadvantaged students, such as care leavers.

​The Unistats website provides information about all university courses and includes links to individual websites with details of the costs for student accommodation at a higher education provider.