A call's being made at Wednesday's Borough Council meeting to convert surplus student houses into affordable family homes for rent from the council.

Council Independents, Our West Lancashire, have tabled a motion which notes that there are currently in Ormskirk almost 70 student houses with more than 300 spare rooms still seeking students for September - while at the same time there is a need for more affordable houses for families in the market town.

This morning, Councillor Adrian Owens who has tabled the motion told QLocal: "There is currently a large over-provision of student accommodation.

"The council has more than £800,000 which it will have to hand back to Whitehall next year under Government rules unless it provides more council homes and there is currently no plan to use this money.

"I don't want to see us handing over money needlessly to the Government when it could be used locally."

The OWL councillor added that along with council reserves, some of this £800,000 could be used to create a £1 million fund to purchase a number of suitable empty student properties and make them into council homes at affordable rent for local families.

"We have a clear need for more affordable family accommodation in the town, yet we have hundreds of rooms and scores of student properties empty. This isn't an efficient use of housing stock and our motion and the fund created would go a small way to making a positive impact.

"The council's financial position is effectively protected from losses through right to buy discounts for 15 years and so these council homes would provide good quality housing at an affordable cost for the next generation,” he went on.

The motion calls on council officers to bring a detailed report to councillors in the autumn with a view to establishing the fund.

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Originally Posted by rogerblaxall

A call's being made at Wednesday's Borough Council meeting to convert surplus student houses into affordable family homes for rent from the council.

Council Independents, Our West Lancashire, have tabled a motion which notes that there are currently in Ormskirk almost 70 student houses with more than 300 spare rooms still seeking students for September - while at the same time there is a need for more affordable houses for families in the market town.

This morning, Councillor Adrian Owens who has tabled the motion told QLocal: "There is currently a large over-provision of student accommodation.

"The council has more than £800,000 which it will have to hand back to Whitehall next year under Government rules unless it provides more council homes and there is currently no plan to use this money.

"I don't want to see us handing over money needlessly to the Government when it could be used locally."

The OWL councillor added that along with council reserves, some of this £800,000 could be used to create a £1 million fund to purchase a number of suitable empty student properties and make them into council homes at affordable rent for local families.

"We have a clear need for more affordable family accommodation in the town, yet we have hundreds of rooms and scores of student properties empty. This isn't an efficient use of housing stock and our motion and the fund created would go a small way to making a positive impact.

"The council's financial position is effectively protected from losses through right to buy discounts for 15 years and so these council homes would provide good quality housing at an affordable cost for the next generation,” he went on.

The motion calls on council officers to bring a detailed report to councillors in the autumn with a view to establishing the fund.

Wouldn’t it be better to see how many empty houses there are in sept when the academic year has started ?

Originally Posted by jester01

Wouldn’t it be better to see how many empty houses there are in sept when the academic year has started ?

Edge Hill now gives students the opportunity to live on campus throughout their three year degree courses.
On site accommodation ranges from very basic to luxurious. You get what you pay for.
Large accommodation blocks were opened for last year's intake.
More onsite accommodation will be available this year.
Falling application numbers.....
Quite a competitor for the local off campus landlords.

As demand for Student accommodation diminishes in and around the town Landlords with HMO licences will start to look for other mean to sustain their businesses! We could end up with, “Shall we call them” challenging tenants from cities like Liverpool Manchester or even London who are looking for places to dump their difficult tenants. Watch this space!

Any former home granted HMO statues for the use of students and no longer required for this purpose should loose its HMO statues and have to be returned to family use!

student numbers are up year on year so wouldnt that mean that the houses will be filled ?
also i very much doubt that edge hill will be abale to house all students on campus ?
saying we will buy back hmo's with 1 million pound isnt really the answer as that will buy about three houses so wont really have any imp[act what so ever ?
all in all a pointless debate by the owls

Jester01

My understanding is that the University reduced its intake this year by c:250 students and is likely next year to shrink by a further 5% in 18/19 .This reduction in size alongside the construction of a further 82 bed spaces on campus.

Yet again your statement emphasises the controlling party is more concerned about the requirements of the University than local residential requirements. It’s time to put residents first!

250 less last year is hardly a dent on the increase in the last 7 years of thousands
, as for controlling party’s I can’t recalk mentioning them , all I’m saying is edge hill will never be able to accommodate all students thats a fact , and if student housing want in demand why is there another 100 flats being constructed now ?

My concerns are not about newly built bespoke student accommodation, it’s about already damaged community’s who have had once family homes turned into Student HMO that are no longer required becoming dumping grounds for difficult and challenging tenants. These HMO licence should be rescinded and returned back to family use.

Who are these challenging tennebts ?

Originally Posted by jester01

Who are these challenging tennebts ?

What are ' tennebts' ? I have never heard of them .

Tenants it should say ,
I must have fat finger syndrome