Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of the recent report published by Higher Education Policy Institute on hidden homelessness among university students.

No student should ever have to worry about their residential accommodation whilst balancing their studies. Although the department plays no role in the provision of student accommodation, we are investing £2 billion over the next three years to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping.

Universities and private accommodation providers are ultimately autonomous and responsible for setting their own rent agreements but we have always encouraged them to review their policies to make sure that their accommodation policies are fair, clear and have the interests of students at heart.

For any student with concerns, we recommend them reaching out to their university, many of whom have hardship funds that students can apply to for financial assistance.

The government recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and that have impacted students. Therefore, in order to support disadvantaged students and those who need additional help, we have confirmed in our guidance to the Office for Students (OfS) on funding for the 2022-23 financial year that in addition to their existing hardship funds, universities can continue to be able to support students in hardship by drawing on the student premium, for which up to £261 million is available for academic year 2022/23.