Robin's Diary

Just an idea?

On my daily commute in and out of Leeds, I am increasingly seeing more and more new building/construction, which is great.? However, a vast amount of it seems to be student accommodation, and there already seems to be plenty of that, and yet we constantly hear about a housing crisis?

I understand we need to educate our young people, but when I was a lad, way back when, you generally only went away to University to do an academic serious subject, and many students went to a local college, lived at home, on the cheap, and in many cases, did some paid work. Now, we have a housing crisis, but our money, in some form, is not building council houses, but is building student housing.

Has the challenge of solving both issues got out of balance, and should some of the student accommodation be used for social housing, old fashioned council houses? ?Should more students be encouraged to study from home, or is this area of spending too important to be restricted by the financial squeeze which we will be in for a while, regardless of who is at No 10? ??????

"Access to safe and stable housing is fundamental to breaking the cycle of poverty." - Barack Obama