Council urges student accommodation developers to take on board new planning guidelines

Two new planning documents aimed at enhancing the quality of student accommodation and advancing the city’s carbon reduction goals have been passed by Nottingham City Council’s Executive Board.

Councillor voted through the Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) Supplementary Planning Document and the Reduction of Carbon in New Development Supplementary Planning Document at a meeting on Tuesday (July 16).

Nottingham has more than 70,000 students – the fourth highest number outside London – with just 23,500 dedicated student beds. Whilst rental costs in the city are rising, they are even higher elsewhere in the regions, according to a new report from CBRE.

The Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) Supplementary Planning Document gives clear guidelines for developers, ensuring new student accommodations are “adaptable and responsive to changing needs”.

The council says there has been a big rise in students wanting to live in purpose-built student flats, over private rented housing in local communities, and that most students going into second and third year usually want to share a house with their friends, leading to groups renting student shared housing on residential streets.

This new planning document focuses more on developers replicating that “shared housing” lifestyle, giving students the options to live in purpose-built flats with their friends by creating cluster flats – or flats with multiple bedrooms that friends can share. The plan sets out a requirement of at least 80% of the bedspaces in new student builds be cluster flats and only 20% being studio flats.

At present, the maximum maintenance loan available to students in Nottingham is £10,227 a year. The CBRE resrarch shows that rents in the city for direct let Purpose Build Student Accommodation (PBSA) for the 2024/25 academic year are set to rise by 5% to an average £229 per week for a studio (fully furnished accommodation, with own kitchen and bathroom). The rise in the average cost of cluster ensuites (where kitchen/living space is shared) is less sharp at 2% – to £189 per week – for the coming academic year. In contrast, maintenance loans are set to increase by just 2.5% next year.

It’s hoped that by promoting more diverse housing options for students, it will encourage more to choose purpose-built student accommodation over housing in residential areas and help balance communities by providing alternatives to Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

The document also provides guidelines and recommendations to create purpose-built student accommodation that not only meets minimum standards but also enhances the overall student living experience. This includes proposals for minimum room sizes and social spaces.

The Reduction of Carbon in New Development Supplementary Planning Document gives detailed guidance on how developers can make their developments more sustainable, reducing carbon both in the construction, design and use of the buildings and focus on energy efficiency, renewable energy use and sustainable construction practices.

The plan has been developed in collaboration with Broxtowe Borough Council and provides detailed strategies for reducing carbon emissions in new developments.

Nottingham City Council has a goal to become the UK’s first carbon-neutral city by 2028, a target known as Carbon Neutral Nottingham 2028 (CN28). Broxtowe Borough has also outlined its carbon reduction priorities through the Climate Change and Green Futures Strategy.

The planning documents set out how new developments can meet these requirements through strategies such as passive design, passive cooling, incorporation of green and blue infrastructure, enhancing building energy efficiency, utilising low-carbon heat sources and technologies and integrating renewable energy.

Emphasis is also placed on the “prudent” use of materials, including the reuse and recycling of materials, sustainable material selection, reducing embodied carbon and promoting building reuse and retrofit.

Councillor Jay Hayes, portfolio holder for planning, said: “These new planning documents aim to set a framework for high-quality, innovative student housing, fostering a more inclusive and sustainable student housing market in Nottingham.

“We are committed to creating environments that enhance the overall student living experience and by providing additional student accommodation, it should allow for more balanced communities to be created within the city.

“The city has ambitions to be carbon neutral by 2028, but we can’t do this on our own. The carbon neutral planning document will help developers to support this ambition, whilst also helping them to reach their own carbon emission reduction targets.

“New developments are a must for a thriving city, but they need to be fit for purpose and sustainable, not just in their construction but in the years to come after they are built. These new planning documents, if given approval, will do just this.”

Raj Bains, a director specialising in student accommodation in CBRE’s London Valuation team, said: “It’s important that Nottingham remains attractive to students, to ensure there is a qualified talent pool for employers. The availability of accessible accommodation is fundamental to this.”

The draft planning documents will go to public consultation over the Summer.