Purpose-built student accommodation Guidance

This consultation closed on Thursday 11 January 2024.

A key objective of the London Plan is to provide the homes that London needs. This includes delivering appropriate levels of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), including affordable student accommodation, as part of a more inclusive London.

Watch this short video to introduce you to the guidance ...

As well as providing students with a place to live, PBSA can play an important role in alleviating pressures on the wider private rental sector. Indirectly its provision also helps underpin London’s higher education sector as a global player, and the wider knowledge economy of the city.

The London Plan 2021 recognises that good growth requires careful cultivation, balancing competing pressures and driving up the quality of development of buildings and surrounding spaces. It embeds important mechanisms to ensure proportionate PBSA provision, and to deliver affordable student accommodation, as well as to ensure PBSA contributes to – rather than undermines - mixed and inclusive neighbourhoods. However, it can remain challenging to navigate different interpretations of what this means in practice, slowing down the delivery of these important objectives.

The draft PBSA LPG is a further step towards ensuring that development proposals assessed through the planning system provide more of the homes and other benefits that London needs. Guidance supports the policies of the London Plan, setting out:

• The role of PBSA in achieving housing, economic and regeneration objectives
• Strategic locational guidance
• How best to manage over-concentration and spread the benefits of PBSA
• Design, management and use mix considerations to help achieve integration with the neighbourhood and inclusive well-being
• Housing mix expectations regarding affordability and disability-related needs
• What is expected concerning nominations agreements

The PBSA LPG can be viewed in the 'documents library' available on this page.

Please share your views by completing our survey below. You are also welcome to join a webinar or other advertised engagement event (see ‘events’ section of this page).

Student social area in Hayloft Point, London (Courtesy of Unite)

Equality Impact Assessment

The equality implications of the draft guidance have been assessed through an Equality Impact Assessment which can be viewed in the document library.

Please share your views on our assessment and any potential equality impacts by completing our survey below.

What has happened so far

Work started on the draft guidance earlier in the year. It has been developed using the expertise of the Mayor’s London Plan team and engagement with the Mayor’s Academic Forum and follow-up sub-groups. This has therefore included representatives of universities, student housing providers and wider development industry, and London’s local planning authorities.

What happens next

The consultation, including the survey (below) will be open until 11th January 2024.

We have 2 open-to-all Q&A events in October and November, and further engagement events are also planned with specific stakeholder groups, notably the cross-sectoral Mayor’s Academic Forum and boroughs. More information on the public events can be found on the 'events' section on this page.

All feedback will be reviewed and a consultation summary document will be published alongside the final guidance.

Register to be notified of planning policy consultations or sign up for GLA Planning News.

You can email the team on: studenthousinglpg@london.gov.uk.