Dear University College London management,

This is an open letter on behalf of the students who are currently living in halls at UCL. We feel that everyone should be able to easily access safe and secure housing and that this is especially important during a global pandemic. Thus we call upon UCL to:

- Reduce rent by 30%
- Freeze rent prices for the next 5 years
- Extend the rent rebate to cover the entirety of the lockdown period
- Guarantee there will be no evictions during the pandemic
- Allow students to end their contracts without finding a replacement resident (permanent)
- Better provisions for isolating students
- Change accommodation contracts to tenancy agreements
- Protection for workers in University halls, no pay cuts or redundancies
- Open the books: Students and staff should get a precise breakdown of the university’s finances and be involved in the decision-making process around how money is spent


UCL has failed in its duty of care to students on numerous levels from the cost of rent to the quality of housing. Students in one hall woke up on Christmas day this year to cold showers as they experienced issues with plumbing (something to be expected as this is an ongoing issue that has not been resolved). Even disregarding these issues students in London have to pay some of the highest rents in the country making an education in the capital inaccessible to those who can not rely on their family for financial support. Housing is a human right and thus UCL should ensure that anybody who comes to study here can access it. For these reasons, we are calling for reductions in rent costs and a freeze on prices so that both current and future students are able to live comfortably in London.

It is also true that this year we are living in exceptional circumstances. With ever-changing lockdown rules, students have found themselves paying for accommodation they are not able to use as they are told to stay at home. For these reasons we are calling for an extension of UCLs rent rebate policy to cover the entirety of the lockdown period; protection from evictions during such unstable times; and for students to be able to end their contracts in acknowledgement of the fact that the circumstances under which they were signed have changed drastically.

However, while the pandemic may have brought these housing issues to wider attention they are not solely a product of this year. For this reason, we are calling for UCL to change its contracts from licensing agreements to tenancy agreements. This change would provide students with more security and rights in their living arrangements. There is a mental health crisis among young people today and while rent reductions and better contracts will not solve that issue they will allow young people to be able to feel safe and secure in their homes away from home.

Our final demand focuses on the solidarity that must exist between students and workers. It is not just students who exist in university spaces and we are committed to making them better for everyone. Cleaners, security and catering staff should not bear the brunt of restructuring the university budget (especially when it is management who receive the vast majority of this budget). Additionally, UCL makes millions of pounds in profit off student accommodation each year, this situation is not a monetary necessity. We stand with those staff who work in university halls and thus demand that they receive no forced redundancies or pay cuts.