This week is National Student Housing Week (11th-15th of November)! 

Your VP Communities has been working with Sabbatical Officers across Scotland on a housing campaign to fight for students’ housing rights. They are campaigning to have the Housing Bill 2025, currently being discussed in Parliament, be more student focused so that student housing is better regulated. 

As a part of this campaign, we are 1 in over 15 Students’ Unions/Associations to participate in National Student Housing Week! 

The schedule is as follows: 

Monday – Placard making session in the Green & Blue Space from 2-5pm 

Tuesday – Come to the atrium and take a picture on our couch as we talk about students couch-surfing. Don’t forget to post using #nationalstudenthousingweek 

Wednesday – We will be going around the atrium to speak to students about their housing experiences. Have something to say? Come find us! 

Thursday – NUS Housing Rally outside Holyrood at 12:30pm! Join your VP Communities and hear from your Scottish Sabbs on the day. 

In addition, your Students’ Union has signed an Open Letter to the Paul McLennan, MSP, Housing Minister asking that the Housing Bill 2025 extend all tenant protections and rent controls to Purpose-Build Student Accommodation on an equal basis to the private rented sector. Additionally, we ask that the Bill addresses the need to guarantors to be abolished. You can read the full Open Letter below:   

Dear Paul McLennan MSP,

We the undersigned write as representatives of Scotland’s student movement to express our concern that in the upcoming Housing Bill students and apprentices are being treated as an afterthought and risk being left out in the cold.

We regard the Housing Bill as a vital first step on the path to tackling the housing emergency facing Scotland, and strongly welcome the tenant protections and rent controls which the bill will usher in for the private rented sector. However, we find ourselves baffled and frustrated by the choice that is being made by your government to exclude student accommodation from this regulation.

Housing is housing, and a home is a home – it shouldn’t matter which form of landlord someone pays for the roof over their head, the protection they receive from their government should be the same. As rent dramatically increases in student accommodation across the country, increasing the risk of people being made homeless or skipping meals to afford their rent, there is no excuse for not applying the same regulation to these homes as those in the private rented sector.

We ask that you amend the Housing Bill to extend all tenant protections and rent controls to purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) on an equal basis to the private rented sector.

We are also greatly concerned that the bill does not mention or address the issue of guarantors. Renters are being asked to provide a UK-based guarantor who owns property or earns a certain amount of money to guarantee that they will pay their rent or pay up to 12 months’ rent up front on top of their deposits. This causes huge problems in accessing a place to live for international students, as well as students and apprentices who are from a working-class background, are estranged, care experienced or carers themselves: all vulnerable groups of renters whom our government should be aiming to protect. NUS Scotland surveying shows that 12% of students experience homelessness during their studies - but this rises to 21% of international students, and 27% of estranged students.

The requirement for a guarantor to rent is causing stress, suffering and pain to our society’s most vulnerable people – it must be abolished. In England an amendment to the Renter’s Reform Bill may be doing just that, as housing is devolved, we need our elected representatives here in Scotland to take ownership and responsibility on this issue - let’s not let Scotland fall behind. We ask that you demonstrate your government’s conviction in helping students, apprentices, and all of Scotland’s tenants by amending the Housing Bill to include a provision which abolishes the requirement for a rental guarantor.

Please, on behalf of Scotland’s students and apprentices, don’t let us down.