Students live in dangerous housing

Students are at high risk from fire, with some homes lacking smoke detectors and fire doors. They are also more at risk from potentially deadly carbon monoxide fumes from unchecked gas heaters.

Oxford City Council and Oxford University Student Union said many young people's homes in the city were also cold, damp, and vermin-infested.

Gail Siddall, environmental health officer at Oxford City Council, said: "There is a problem with the standard of student accommodation in parts of Oxford. Poor housing breeds poor health, and students should not have to put up with it - especially when they are paying a minimum of £50 or £60 a week for a room in a shared house. Some students are living in dangerous housing.

"Rats and mice are quite common problems, along with damp, disrepair and fire and gas safety."

She called for changes to Government legislation to control the quality of student accommodation.

Her comments followed the publication of a national survey, carried out by the National Union of Students, showing 16 per cent of students lived in vermin-infested houses, and almost half had never seen a gas safety certificate for their accommodation -- despite it being a legal requirement for landlords.

Fifty per cent also reported damp in their homes, and 20 per cent had no smoke detectors. The figures are believed to be representative of the situation in Oxford.

James Rowlands, vice-president of welfare at Oxford University Student Union, said: "There are a huge number of students living in Oxford and a captive market for housing stock.

"This means there are very high returns, and some bad landlords.

"We have lots of enquiries about sub-standard accommodation, and a significant number of students are experiencing difficulties with their landlords. The most prominent complaints are about damp, cold rooms and badly fitted windows."

She said landlords should make sure their buildings were sound and safe but added that students had to take some responsibility for their accommodation.

Nigel Kitt, the director of the Oxford Housing Rights Centre, an independent housing charity based on New Road, said: "More should be done to protect students from dangerous property. Twenty thousand people in the city live in houses of multiple occupation, which are where you are most likely to find problems of overcrowding and damp. Of all the people living in such homes, the biggest group is students. Oxford is fairly typical of a town in the south east with a high amount of housing pressure."

Oxford University accommodation officer Kate Davenport said it visited most homes before offering them to students.

She said: "We probably get the good end of the market.

"I am sure there is housing in Oxford which is not up to standard, but landlords with unacceptable accommodation would not approach us as they know we have rigorous standards. The same, however, may not be true for letting agencies."