Manchester Metropolitan University
An ON AIR sign in a radio studio. The picture is extremely zoomed-in, with a sign that says MIC LIVE in glowing red on the left side, and ON AIR in glowing green on the right.

NQ’s Student Radar launches special student housing edition

News | 1st November 2024

By Leslie Kerwin

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  • NQ reporters spoke with Save the Student’s Tom Allingham and student housing expert Louise Barker.
  • Featured image credit: Eva Horsefield.

As November rolls in and eyes start turning to the estate agent window, NQ’s Student Radar podcast has launched a special edition to look at the state of student housing in Manchester and the North West.

The project was Student Radar’s biggest-yet, with six journalists reporting from ManMet’s Student Union offices, Cambridge Halls accommodation, and live from two studios in the university’s Grosvenor East building.

Three girls sat around a table in the bottom left corner, each with a computer and a microphone. In the middle of the table is a red and green sign which says LIVE ON AIR. The girl in the upper right corner is white and blonde, with a fringe, a white vest, and a checked shirt, and is wearing headphones while typing. The girl in the middle is white, with blonde hair in a ponytail and a white top. She is holding her headphones to her ear with one hand while she types. The girl in the bottom right corner is white, with blonde hair and headphones, and is wearing a bright red jumper. She is reading a script on the computer, with the words out of focus in the image.
Student Radar hosts Ellie Double, Ella Venn, and Tilly Snaith in the broadcasting studio | Credit: Eva Horsefield

The twenty-minute special saw Student Radar interviewing students from across the housing spectrum, such as those living in university halls or in private student housing.

Alongside interviewing students, Student Radar also invited special guests Tom Allingham – communications director at campaigns and advisory group Save the Student – and Louise Barker, a student housing expert at ManMet’s Student Union.

The podcast follows Parliament’s second reading of the Renters’ Rights Bill, which will seek to simplify the renting process and give more protections to renters within the UK. However, concerns have been raised by organisations such as the National Union of Students who say that the bill will not adequately protect those in student accommodations, due to the student exception to the no-fault evictions ban and the continued requirement for UK guarantors to rent a property, which disproportionately impacts both working-class and international students.

Two white women are in a brightly-lit office. The girl on the left is wearing a khaki hoodie and light blue jeans, and is standing with one hand on her hip and the other holding a pair of headphones to her ear. She is focussing intently. Sitting down at the desk on the right side of the image is a woman with ginger hair, a black jumper, and a pair of black headphones. she is leaning away from the camera and her face is not visible. There are two microphones in front of them.
Polly Starkie and SU’s Louise Barker moments before going air | Credit: Leslie Kerwin

The podcast also heard from students who do not live in student accommodation, and who instead commute to university from across Manchester and beyond. MMU student Sophie Cross, who commutes to campus from Bolton, described some of the stresses of having to tackle with delays and confusing disruptions to train services between the centre of Manchester and the outer boroughs of the city region.

In one case, she boarded the wrong train: “It took me two hours more to get home than it usually would do. 

“It’s a bit tricky commuting. I suppose you have to think about things a lot more.” 

A black girl with an afro and headphones is staring intently to left at something off-screen. Her headphones are black and have a microphone attached. On the far right of the image is a white gril holding a phone in one hand and pointing to the left with another. She is speaking, and wears a black t-shirt.
Sophie Cross and Lily Boyle preparing for broadcast | Credit: Eva Horsefield

In his segment, Tom Allingham told the podcast: “Increasingly, students are either having to commute from home, living with their parents and so on, or having to commute from further away from university because it’s too expensive to live close to their university as they’d want to.”

According to Tom, the most frequent questions they get at Save the Student are from students asking about their rights in private rented accommodation, such as landlords trying to keep large portions of, or sometimes the whole of their deposit, when they move out of a student house. 

“Across the country, there is a shortage of student accommodation,” he said. “And when there is a shortage of anything, but particularly of accommodation, what you’ll see usually is increasing costs because it’s at a premium and there’s more demand for it, but often as well a decline in standards. 

“So, what you have is that students are paying more money for a worse product.”

Two boys sit on the left and right side of the image, both wearing black hoodies. The boy on the left has brown skin and facial hair, and is sitting in a chair with one hand resting on his temple. The boy next to him has white skin and long, blond hair and glasses, and is speaking into a large microphone while looking off-screen.
Haider Atiq and Ed Orsborn, on student houses | Credit: Eva Horsefield

For many members of the team, the Student Housing podcast was their first experience with live broadcasting – something that was ‘really special’, according to podcast presenter and mainstay of Student Radar, Ellie Double.

“I think it’s very topical and very interesting, and it’s a big problem that needs to be talked about,” she said after broadcast. “I think it’s really special that it was students who put it on because obviously, they’re the ones affected. There were some people in there that were really talented, and that was really cool to see.

“This was really cool because it was for our show – it’s like seeing our baby grow up. It was really fun!”