Following my previous commentaries tracking the progression of the Renters’ Rights Bill, last week in the House of Lords an amendment was presented, courtesy of crossbench peer Lord Best, stipulating an exemption for Purpose Built Student Accommodation from local authority licensing in the provisions of the Bill.  

This amendment is intended as a response to a potential issue broached by the BPF, in particular the Student Accommodation committee, of which I have a biased view (being myself a member). In essence, PBSA, although only that which is code-compliant, will not be required to satisfy the various licensing requirements of the relevant local authority. This is particularly welcome as the BPF written submission questioned whether, if PBSA is already governed by government-approved codes then local authority licensing would be an “unnecessary duplication of regulation”. 

If it is accepted by the House of Commons, this amendment will enable PBSA providers to save a significant amount of money per development scheme, which, in turn, will allow for an increase in projects within this market without negatively impacting the quality of the housing provided for university students in the UK.