Developers of student accommodation set to contribute towards affordable housing in Nottingham

Developers of new student accommodation in Nottingham may have to pay a contribution towards affordable housing in the city, under new proposals set to go to the City Council’s Executive Board for approval next week (18 May).The council says it is receiving “unprecedented” numbers of planning applications to build Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA), as student numbers continue to rise in the city – with approximately 52,500 full time students at both universities in the 2020/21 academic year.This has led to “significant” growth in privately provided student accommodation in the city and an increase in the number of new PBSA developments being built.Despite a further 2,000 PBSA bedspaces becoming available for this academic year (2020-21) in Nottingham, the council says that figures show that this is only just keeping up with demand. It added that in previous years the increase in additional new bed spaces has been lower than the increase in student numbers – creating an actual shortfall.The council says its Annual Vacancy Survey of PBSA has consistently shown the “vast majority” of bedspaces are full (less than 2% of all bedspaces were vacant). In a recent consultation with student accommodation providers, the vast majority (82%) confirmed that they expect the PBSA market to return to previous trends once all Covid-related restrictions are removed. More PBSA developments are needed to try to deal with the previous shortfall in PBSA bed spaces, meet the growing demand as student numbers increase and with the aim of returning traditional family housing, currently often used by students as Houses of Multiple Occupation, back into homes for families with a housing need.If adopted, the new Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), which went through a public consultation last year, will help improve the balance of housing types across the city by using Section 106 agreements. These are negotiated as part of the planning process and aim to mitigate the impact of a new development on the local community, often contributing towards employment and training opportunities, educational services, the upkeep of open spaces and investment in transport and its infrastructure.The recently adopted Local Plan – used by planning officers and members of the Planning Committee alongside other national and local documents, including SPDs, when considering planning applications – sets out the principle for seeking affordable housing contributions from new PBSA developers. Currently, The Local Plan requires 10% of all new residential developments of between 10-14 homes to be affordable housing, and 20% for schemes of 15 homes or more.The SPD will bring student schemes in line with this requirement for general housing, by proving a mechanism to secure funding for affordable housing contributions using the following thresholds:– Between 50-74 bed spaces – 10% contribution– 75+ bed spaces – 20% contribution.The amount of contribution will depend on the size, impact and viability for each development. Currently, PBSA schemes contribute towards improvements to open space, employment & training opportunities and other necessary contributions such as flood protection measures.