A building which served as a church will be turned into student accommodation after a developer argued thousands more student beds were needed in the city.
Applicant Crowndale Properties applied to the city council to turn the first and second floors of a building in Thurland Street into 26 studio apartments.
The building was home to the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG), an evangelical Christian denomination which started in Brazil.
The church has now moved to Lower Parliament Street in Nottingham.
The applicant wrote that if the city council wants to bring down the number of students in HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) in residential areas, it should approve more Purpose Built Student Accomodation (PBSA).
They said Nottingham has a higher-than-average number of students living in shared accommodation compared with neighbouring Midlands cities and the UK as a whole.
Planning documents put forward by Crowndale Properties said to meet student demand in the city, the University of Nottingham will require 5,104 more beds and Nottingham Trent will need 624 more based on the 2020/21 student population.
On August 15, the plans for the studio flats were approved by Nottingham City Council.
“The need is greater for UoN but the need for NTU remains substantial – the proposal reduces the need by 26 spaces”, they said.
They argued that Nottingham has the fourth greatest full-time student population in the UK and that the city has seen the greatest increase in full time student population of any city in the UK in recent years, with student numbers up 23 per cent from 2015/16 to 2019/20.
Planning documents added: “The need is increased if the council wish to reduce the occupation of family housing further than the regional / national average – further spaces will also be needed if student populations continue to increase. This analysis also assumes that all the pipeline is built.
“Re-use of existing buildings is a growing ‘movement’ recognising that it is not just the use of buildings that creates carbon emissions, the construction of buildings is also a considerable contributor.
“If it is feasible to reuse an existing building spatially and functionally, even where the resulting building may be somewhat compromised and / or the works of conversion may be extensive, that may be preferable from a carbon emissions perspective. It also has a less disruptive effect on the functioning of the area around the site through a shorter, lower impact construction period.”
The applicant said the site is “well located” with access to supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and the Nottingham Trent University campus.
They said the rooms have “generous windows” and are “not subject to excessive overshadowing or overbearing effects from adjoining structures”.
