In the last couple of years in Cambridge, whenever a sizable piece of land has become available, a specialist developer has submitted a planning application for student accommodation. This has been particularly the case with “windfall sites” which had not been allocated in the 2006 local plan.

It has been clear for some time that the Council was struggling to resist these applications in spite of the overwhelming need for ordinary family housing of all tenures.

So, in the Autumn, Councillor Catherine Smart, in her role as shadow to the Executive Councillor for Planning and Transport, proposed that the City Council should prepare Supplementary Planning Guidance to assist in getting the decisions right. Unfortunately, this was not taken up at the time.

Recently the Council lost an appeal on 315 – 349 Mill Road. The developer had applied to build only student accommodation but had been refused because the Local Plan allocated the site to a mix of ordinary housing and student accommodation. The Government Inspector allowed the Appeal in spite of this.

The Council has now decided to commission a study that investigates the levels of demand and supply of student housing and its impact on the local housing market. It will also consider the affordability of the different types of accommodation. Specialist developers prefer small single units rather than the traditional clusters with shared facilities but the study will investigate whether that is what students want or can afford. It will also look at the other facilities purpose built accommodation should have to make it a good place for students to live.

Catherine commented, “I am very pleased the Council is going to look at this issue. Students need to have somewhere affordable to live while they are in the city but the city has other needs as well. Developers always claim that providing purpose built accommodation will free up housing but there is no evidence that I know for that. We need to have facts and statistics to make the case rather than relying on anecdotes. I could wish the work had been started earlier, but welcome it now.”

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