William Straw, son of Home Secretary Jack Straw, is leading a rent strike at his Oxford College.

Students at New College have voted to withhold their rent next term in protest at the rise from £55 a week to £85 a week over the next four years.

Mr Straw is president of the Junior Common Room committee, which organised the ballot of undergraduates.

William Straw, son of Jack Straw, is leading a rent strike

He said the rise was the largest of any Oxford College. It will be introduced gradually, starting with a rise of £7.50 a week next term. New College has rooms for 90 per cent of its students. Most of the rooms are en-suite and rent includes food, fuel and membership of some societies.

New College said that it has to increase the rent to make up for the £200,000 a year it loses as a result of the 40 per cent cut during ten years in the Government subsidy of colleges.

Mr Straw said that 120 students voted in favour of the strike in the autumn term compared to 62 against.

He added: "Time will tell whether the strike goes ahead. If you are a first year on a four year course, you are looking at another £1,700 of debt.

"This rise is by far the biggest of any college in Oxford. The Junior Common Room is not against a rise, it is that we are against a rise of this much.

Mr Straw will not be involved in the strike as JCR president, as he stands down in July.

David Palfreyman, bursar of New College, said: "We are deeply unsympathetic. At the moment we have almost the lowest rent of the colleges.

"It will be £62.50 a week next year, which will still be in the middle compared to the other colleges. It is not the highest.

"We have to plug the gap created by the fall in the amount colleges are subsidised."

He added that New College students would still be better off than students at other universities because they only had to pay for the 25 weeks of term time. At Oxford Brookes University, a room costs up to £90 a week and students pay for 42 weeks each year.

**Picture: David Fleming