Year: 2009

COLCHESTER Council will “have blood on its hands” if plans to build new student flats in Greenstead are approved, according to a local resident.

Dennis Groves, 78, of Pickford Walk, who has lived there 22 years. He said: “The students are parking their cars along here and the other side of the road. They have got plenty of room in their own car park.

“This is the third time they have tried to get this built. Just imagine how close the building would be to our house …

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A drive to improve neighbourhoods in Brighton & Hove with high numbers of students has been unveiled to curb problems blamed on ‘studentification’ such as noise and litter.

In a move led by Brighton & Hove City Council, a strategy has been designed with key partners including the universities, landlords and estate agents that targets problems identified by local residents.

For the first time a student housing strategy, which features a two-pronged approach to both manage and deliver student housing in the city, is included in the city-wide housing strategy …

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Most people are against raising university tuition fees for students in England, a survey has suggested.

A survey for the National Union of Students survey suggests only 12% of those questioned want fee increases to be considered.

At the moment, students in England pay just over £3,000 a year for almost all higher education courses …

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Student life has moved on a long way since 1980s sitcom The Young Ones depicted the horrendously grim reality of student housing.

Conran & Partners, Sir Terence’s architecture and design practice, is working with Q Developments and the LSE to turn more than 700 bedrooms into the most sought-after student digs in the capital.

The accommodation will boast designer interiors and balcony views from most of the flats of the Tate Modern and St Paul’s Cathedral …

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Developers are planning to demolish a well-known music venue to build student flats.

The Charlotte, which has played host to bands including Oasis, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys and Leicester’s Kasabian, will be turned into 11 student flats if developer Deckchair Ltd gets planning permission.

Under the proposals, the bar area would be retained …

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A city council has been criticised by a High Court judge for failing to alert the Health and Safety Executive before allowing hundreds of flats for students to be built near a potentially hazardous gas storage depot.

Mr Justice Collins, sitting in London, said the safety body should have been told that Wolverhampton city council was proposing the construction of four blocks of flats to accommodate university students within 100 metres of a depot storing liquid petroleum gas (LPG).

When the HSE became aware of the plans, which received permission in August 2008, it advised the flats should not be permitted because of the risk of a gas explosion …

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Grainger Plc and Quintain Estates & Development Plc plan to raise a total of 441 million pounds ($729 million) from rights offers, as the U.K. property companies seek to repay debt and finance investments and acquisitions.

These sales would bring the combined amount that U.K. real estate investment trusts and property companies have raised in capital this year to about 6.6 billion pounds. The businesses are trying to shore up finances and have money available for acquisitions after commercial property prices fell 44 percent from their peak in June 2007, according to Investment Property Databank Ltd.

“It is absolutely astonishing,” said Mike Prew, a London- based analyst at Nomura International. “There seems to be a strong appetite for real estate at this stage of the cycle.”  …

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A 10-storey development of student accommodation on Great Suffolk Street – likely to be run by the London School of Economics – has been given the green light by Southwark Council’s planning committee.

Last year Q Developments obtained planning permission for a development of 173 flats designed by Conran & Partners on the site bounded by Great Suffolk Street, Pocock Street, Sawyer Street and the London Fire Brigade’s football pitch.

The residential scheme, known as Moonraker Place, “is now unbuildable … for reasons of viability,” Q Developments’ Jim Thomas told the planning committee on Tuesday night. …

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Plans to demolish a historic music venue and replace it with hundreds of student flats in the centre of Hammersmith have been turned down.

Developers London and Regional had hoped to build shops and 429 flats in a vast project reaching up to ten storeys high on the site of the old Hammersmith Palais in Shepherd’s Bush Road.

But councillors at a planning meeting last week (27) voted unanimously against the scheme following objections from several groups concerned about its impact on the area …

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Losses at Braemar Group Plc (AIM: BRG) nearly doubled to £109,000 (2008: £58,000 loss) in the six months to September 30, but the Hale-based property investor said it had seen increases funds under management and turnover.

Revenues were £1,439,000 compared with £1,267,000 and Braemar, headed by chief executive Marc Duschenes, said recurring income now covered 63 per cent of its administration expenses.

The group’s Braemar Securities division, which operates funds investing in agricultural land, ground rents and student accommodation, saw funds under management rise 18 per cent to £46m …

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