Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Strategic Director for Place.

The Chair invited Councillor Palmer to speak under Standing Order No. 44, who made reference to:

·        objected to the new application for student accommodation based on community balance issues;

·        this was a new application rather than a simple amendment to the previous consented planning application and much had changed in terms of the student accommodation since that original planning permission was granted;

·        Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) was dominating much of the city centre with even more planned;

·        the National Planning Policy Framework promoted inclusive, well-designed places with accessible services and vibrant communities, in which this development did not achieve this;

·        the St James Neighbourhood Plan highlighted the area as being unique, with and predominantly residential, acting as a gateway to the city centre;

·        more than 50 percent of residents in the St. James area were students, who were welcomed but was already the highest proportion in the city;

·        there has been no evidence provided that PBSAs had led to HMOs returning to residential use;

·        currently there were 17 HMOs for sale in St James, all marketed as HMO investments and due to costs involved were unlikely to be returned to use as a residential or rental property;

·        there was almost no rental properties in the St James area, which were not student HMOs;

·        an appeals inspector in St James ward, last year noted that, there was an over-concentration of student accommodation which harmed the objective of creating a balanced community;

·        the appeals inspector further noted that the Council was not achieving its target of at least 75% increase in student numbers accommodated by PBSA;

·        though additional PBSA’s were expected, it needed to be weighed against other plan policies including plan C3 of the St James Neighbourhood Plan to avoid an over-concentration of student accommodation and harming community balance;

·        there were 12,500 PBSA beds in Exeter, the majority, of which were in the St James area or its fringes, which were in addition to the hundreds of student HMOs;

·        the site needed to be developed for permanent residential homes as a key site in the city centre, not for further student accommodation; and

·        the site was currently a mess and as a key gateway into the city should be developed for permanent residential homes for residents.

In response to questions from Members, Councillor Palmer made the following further comments:

·        there was no clear evidence of under-occupancy or over-occupancy of the 12,500 student beds;

·        data was lacking due to private ownership and no central data source, but not all PBSAs were fully occupied;

·        many international students tended to stay in PBSA for three years;

·        first-year students preferred PBSA for safety and security, but they moved to HMO housing after the first year for lower cost and social reasons;

·        residential accommodation for young professionals in the city centre would be more viable and sustainable than PBSA, but only flats were feasible on this site; and

·        young professionals would benefit from city centre living and there would be longer term demand for residential accommodation.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31