More than 16,000 purpose-built student accommodation bed spaces have been created in Nottingham over the last decade as part of a long-term strategy to ease pressure on family housing.
Nottingham City Council says the city now has the largest purpose-built student accommodation market outside London, following years of development aimed at reducing the concentration of student HMOs in areas including Lenton, Radford, the Arboretum and Hyson Green.
Those neighbourhoods had become increasingly imbalanced from around 2010, with concerns over anti-social behaviour, rising rents and the loss of traditional family homes.
Paul Seddon, the council’s director of planning, said the aim was to use purpose-built student accommodation, known as PBSA, to relieve pressure on communities close to the city’s universities.
“By having that really strong quantum of PBSA, that would start to relieve some of the over-concentration, the imbalances, in traditional housing in areas close to the universities where there were significant HMOs,” he said.
The approach has often proved controversial, with councillors approving large student blocks at planning committee despite concerns about the number being built.
But Mr Seddon said the alternative would have left the city exposed to a deeper housing crisis, with more students competing for private rented homes and higher pressure on rents.
Other university cities, including Oxford and Durham, have seen students queue overnight for accommodation because of shortages.
Mr Seddon also said refusing major schemes against planning policy could have left the council vulnerable to costly appeals and, in the worst cases, a loss of local planning control.
Earlier this month planning minister Matthew Pennycook issued nine designation notices after councils failed to meet national standards on major planning decisions. In such cases, developers can bypass local planning committees and take applications directly to the Planning Inspectorate.
In Beeston, Broxtowe Borough Council was ordered to pay more than £20,000 in appeal costs to developer Cassidy Group after its decision to reject a student accommodation scheme was overturned.
“The immediate practical would have been we’d have spent a whole load of resource fighting appeals that our policy, our local plan, would not have supported,” Mr Seddon said.
He said Nottingham’s planning committee had made “really mature decisions” over a long period, supported by consistent officer advice and feedback.
For several years, Nottingham’s student accommodation market had very low vacancy levels and high demand, with the council seeking to “get ahead” of growth in student numbers.
“There are more students than ever living in PBSA and that was the purpose of the long-term strategy around purpose-built student accommodation for over the past decade,” Mr Seddon said.
Vacancy rates are now rising, as intended under the strategy. They have increased from below one per cent to 12 per cent for cluster flats and more than 16 per cent for studios.
Figures for 2025/26 show an estimated 29,903 purpose-built beds were occupied, although the city still had a shortfall of at least 11,411 students who needed accommodation in private flats or houses.
The council says this means student bed spaces are still needed, but at a much lower rate than in recent years.
An average of 2,086 new bed spaces have been created each year over the last five years, with 2,700 delivered in 2025/26. In the current year, which began in March, only 200 bed spaces are forecast to be completed.
Mr Seddon said the strategy had also helped return more than 700 former student homes to the wider housing market. Because student properties are exempt from council tax, the return of those homes to tax-paying family occupation is expected to generate around £5 million for the council.
He said rents in Nottingham’s student accommodation market are also lower than the national average, reflecting the city’s supply and its long-term planning approach.
The next stage could see some student blocks converted into co-living accommodation if vacancy rates continue to rise. The council says this could help retain graduates and provide more housing options for young professionals in the city.
Mr Seddon said the aim is to keep “top talent” in Nottingham while continuing to manage the balance between student growth, housing supply and established communities.
By Joe Locker, Local Democracy Reporter