Students have occupied part of a campus building at a university amid plans to replace accommodation buildings with a new £200 million development with higher rent.
The former Park Village residence at the University of Sussex is set to be replaced with a new West Slope development, which will add roughly 1,900 new beds to the university’s on-campus accommodation.
Alongside student housing, the development will also include a study space, a new health and wellbeing centre and social and retail spaces, including a new supermarket and cafe.
However, students have expressed anger as the plans will see the cheapest accommodation on campus, at £95 a week, replaced with housing estimated to cost more than £180 a week.
A group known as Squat The Slope has “reclaimed” the social centre at Park Village to “show resistance” to the planned development.
A spokesman for Squat The Slope said: “Students, especially those from lower-income communities are being categorically priced out of Sussex, representing the ongoing gentrification and inaccessibility of the university in general.”
The students are demanding that rent at a third of the on-campus accommodation is kept below £100 a week and that a “student assembly” should be consulted on all future developments.
It follows a similar occupation at the university in 2018, when protesters stormed the construction site of the East Slope accommodation development.
The former flats, built in the 1970s and which cost students up to £88 a week, were replaced with housing that currently costs as much as £176 a week.
A spokeswoman for the University of Sussex said: “The Park Villages residences no longer fit the needs of our students and the proposed redevelopment is designed to provide a significantly improved campus experience for our students.
“In developing our plans, we engaged extensively with students, staff and local residents to ensure that their voices were heard and they were consulted on the process throughout its development.
“We are hugely mindful and constantly reviewing the situation to ensure rent prices remain affordable and we have a full package of financial measures in place to support our students. This includes loans, scholarships, bursaries and an affordable housing policy, discussed and designed in partnership with student representatives.
“This will ensure the university maximises the number of campus rooms priced at affordable rates.
“Student rents on campus also include energy bills and other utilities, ensuring that those living on campus are insulated from any rise in energy costs.”
The university spokeswoman also said that any trees removed during the redevelopment would be “replaced with at least two newly planted ones”.
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