Universities taking over the city centres.

Welshtel

Welshtel

Vital Football Hero
My wife and I visited Cardiff City Centre today to do some shopping and had some discussion again about the amount of Cardiff centre that was now turned over to student accommodation. ODDLY enough there was also a report on ITV Wales at 6 pm about the same subject, stories about students and their behaviour spoiling life for the residents nearby the student accommodation etc.

There are a number of issues regarding student accommodation:
1. Houses that should be available to the ordinary public are being bought up as student accommodation, denying potential home owners the chance of owning their own home. It's hard enough for people, especially young people, to get a house now and get on the housing ladder. And ordinary people should have access to houses in the better parts of town where they can enjoy the cinemas, parks, access to shopping etc but these areas are being handed to students, often people from other countries.
We the common people are having to take buses or trains into the city which is costly and also requires us to pay parking costs. Why can't the people live in the city centres? Why is priority given to students? In Cardiff we have lovely walks along the Taff and Ely rivers etc but we have to travel in to these places. Not only that but the City Centre is packed with housing for students, which is not at all tidy accommodation but dowdy housing with no decent gardens to make the City smart. The city centre therefore is not attractive and reflecting the general public but reflecting the owners and the students may I say, which is not a pretty picture in most cases. OK Big new blocks of student housing are better quality and landscaped in places but still the principle applies that the general public are being shut out of Cardiff and not allowed to own houses in the City Centre.

2: WHY aren't students and Universities located out of town? The land is cheaper and large campuses can be located together encompassing all the disciplines, preventing travelling to and from the lecture halls and workshops. The cost of education is expensive enough, why take the most expensive real estate and give it to students? The nightclubs, theatres, cinemas, restaurants etc etc are mostly all in the city centres. Of course students love that and spend huge amounts of their grants and time using the City Centre's facilities, which dare I say, should be focused on their task of getting the best education rather than one divided up by entertainment.

3. I'm all for education and want to see the British people educated to the best degree (no pun intended) but the needs of the British public are paramount, or should be. We the tax payers (who pay for a huge amount of the Universities, their running costs etc etc) should get the best value for our hard earned. In fact I will go as far as to say that all free services such as education should be as economically provided as possible. The bottom line therefore should be best value as well as to keep the cities for the people.

Another case is Swansea City, with Swansea Bay a beautiful area but the housing around it is all for students. It should be brimming with holiday visitors and making a fortune for the City in travel and hotel commerce but it's all clogged up by the students and THEIR needs. What happened to the happiness of the general public and their ability to live in such a place? Having lived in Sketty, Swansea at one time and my wife having been born in Mumbles, we have little hope of buying a house there now. Once more, the housing is being bought up easily by landlords who don't care who live there and who often let the standards drop. The result? A beautiful area going to pot because there's no pride in the area because nobody has proper ownership of it with a pride in the real estate.

It looks as if the horse has already bolted but the thing is possibly reversible in some areas if the government puts a ban on buying real estate away from the public.
 
in common with many provincial cities; Universities can be one of the largest direct and indirect sources of employment, as well as (often) one of the single biggest local 'export' earners and revenue generators.

Cardiff is no different.

See: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/146798-universitys-2.7bn-boost-to-uk-economy

And read this:

https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/108179/Economic-Impact-of-Cardiff-University-February-2015.pdf

And read this: http://www.nus.org.uk/Global/Student%20contribution%20to%20the%20UK%20economy.pdf



Students are profligate spenders (despite what some still think) they are core engines of the local economy, Cardiff and Swansea would suffer greatly if the Universities in it moved away/to the fringes of town.

There are exceptions, Universities in London are all slowly but surely relinquishing incredible valuable properties in west/central London for properties and accommodation further away from their historical base.

The reason this is happening and can easily happen is the public transportation links in London are excellent and the counter balancing demand for property in London remains strong (although I do still expect this to cool off a bit over the next 2-3 years as the Russians and the Chinese divest because of Brexit)...

So, in summary, be grateful you've got them in Cardiff and Swansea!!
 
Take your point 'EX' but we are bringing in more tourism these days and both cities are trying to expand on tourism and entertainment as the main drawing power for trade. I agree, we DO get good revenue from the universities and they ARE a big employer but the main point I'm making is that local people and businesses are so often 'shut out' by the location of Universities and in Cardiff's case, they are encroaching more and more. A pity for residents and us all that live around Cardiff. We could have so much more in the centre and it could become the big city for us on a much better basis. Bigger and better shopping malls, more sports and more emphasis on the rivers and waterways which Cardiff Bay has exploited well already but could do even better. The area around the castle and the Welsh Office could be much better exploited were it not for all the student housing and University sites sprouting up.

I know there's an alternative view and argument but more should be done for the people of the city and area rather than for students that are not local and have no affiliation in the main, to the area.
 
Welshtel - 13/9/2016 18:02

Take your point 'EX' but we are bringing in more tourism these days and both cities are trying to expand on tourism and entertainment as the main drawing power for trade. I agree, we DO get good revenue from the universities and they ARE a big employer but the main point I'm making is that local people and businesses are so often 'shut out' by the location of Universities and in Cardiff's case, they are encroaching more and more. A pity for residents and us all that live around Cardiff. We could have so much more in the centre and it could become the big city for us on a much better basis. Bigger and better shopping malls, more sports and more emphasis on the rivers and waterways which Cardiff Bay has exploited well already but could do even better. The area around the castle and the Welsh Office could be much better exploited were it not for all the student housing and University sites sprouting up.

I know there's an alternative view and argument but more should be done for the people of the city and area rather than for students that are not local and have no affiliation in the main, to the area.
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You live there and so you have first hand experience, my only counter to your grumble and request for a more balanced approach is 'get involved!' - when you vote for your local Councillor, ask him/her about the strategic plan for Cardiff. see: https://www.cardiff.gov.uk/ENG/Your-Council/Strategies-plans-and-policies/Pages/default.aspx

Attend key meetings, make your views known.

If you aren't involved, get involved! Go to council meetings, follow the consultations, generate local responses and most of all hold your representatives to account when they produce their annual progress reports against the adopted strategic plan!!

 
You're right of course 'EX', we whinge but never do anything about it. It's just a meeting too far here or there but if there are opportunities to put across the point I always take them. With the Charity stuff, etc time is short but when the opportunity to sit and write something like this arises, I take it and float it and see how others think. The other thing on a site like this is you get some great thinking (well, it's the intellectual Spurs connection!).

Go to a council meeting though? Mmmmm. I've been to a few and they do work! Better than sleeping tablets actually. But no not really, I'll leave it to the professional sleepers. You DO need the time for it to do it justice.

Anyway off to Uganda again on Tuesday to try and make a difference there but I do think about our residents and think they ought to get more than they do out of the pound they earn.
 
Speaking for Swansea - the city would be a shell without the students. The new Bay Campus attracts staff, businsess and students alike. it's a cash cow for the city and makes the city vibrant. just embrace it!



 
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