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ANNUAL ‘HOUSING RE-LAUNCH’ BEGINS

IS IT ALL A POINTLESS EXERCISE?

Liz Crosthwaite & Fiona Swinhoe

The Housing Re-launch, previously known as ‘housing week’, sees a huge number of properties released onto the LSH office and internet notice boards. This year the week beginning 4th February is the time where a large majority of students will begin to claim their accommodation for the next academic year using Liverpool Student Homes’ services. The organisation’s website declares, “If you are seeking student accommodation in the private sector you are strongly advised to use [our] service”.

The concept of providing some designated period for housing-hunting is agreed to be a helpful one for students, particularly first-years who may have no previous experience of renting and may be confused about when to begin looking for a house. However one prominent student landlord has accused the organization of creating “panic” by releasing all properties on the same day, as students rush to claim accommodation immediately rather than taking the time to look at numerous properties. He did not deny the need for some longer, structured period of house-hunting to be defined, “without a specified time period students will not know when to start looking and will, regrettably, be lead once again by private adverts. Private adverts have the potential for students to fall into the hands of unscrupulous landlords (who still exist)”. He added that in re-naming the housing period ‘Housing Re-Launch’, LHS have “Once again have missed the opportunity to move to a positive statement (e.g. Housing Month) and have opted for a vague, wishy washy statement (re-launch) which does not help either students or landlords.”

However LSH are the only non-profit organisation which works with the city and the universities to ensure students have a range of different properties to choose from and that the properties comply with given standards. LSH stated “landlords and owners follow a Code of Practise pertaining to their management of their properties and therefore allowing students to report problems or concerns they may have through a structured system”. Moreover they noted that they “recognise that students will often start to think about accommodation for the next academic year as early as December. This year we launched a Pre-Housing magazine which detailed some important aspects of house hunting and in addition, included adverts from a selection of registered owners“. Thus LSH are taking steps to ensure that students looking for houses outside ‘housing re-launch’ are also well informed.

A spokesperson for the universities said: “The Universities of Liverpool, John Moores and Liverpool Hope value the work of Liverpool Student Homes and the successful partnership between our universities that supports the organisation. Liverpool Student Homes continue to have an important role in driving up standards in the private sector student housing market.”

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