With the pandemic leaving students stuck paying for accommodation to which they have no access, some University of Birmingham (UoB) students have decided to fight back.

So far over 100 people have joined the strike, with estimates by Rent Strike UoB putting the total withheld to be in excess of £100,000.

Tom Wood, a member of Student Justice Now, a group that campaigns in support of students affected by university mismanagement, was instrumental in setting up the committee. He says that after the argument for a rent strike began to be presented by students, the group mobilised and formed a specialist committee. ‘We organised a rent strike committee vote, so that the rent strike leadership would be accountable to the students and represent their demands.’

Rent Strike Committee member, Dean, concurs that they have taken ‘every possible measure in order to make the campaign as democratic as possible’, to ensure those involved have ‘a mandate to represent our strikers.’

The group have worked hard to promote their campaign, with a growing social media presence and contact with rent strike campaigns at other universities, including Birmingham City University. Furthermore, meetings on student experience have been held with unions including NEU, Unison and UCU.

Although Rent Strike UoB is in no way linked to the Guild, Dean was quick to praise the work that has been done over the past few weeks. Community and Welfare Officer at the Guild, Charlotte Minter, has been in contact with the university since the beginning of December, arguing that for students staying in University managed accommodation, it is unfair for them to have to pay rent during the Student Travel Window, which commenced on the 2nd December.

Although this was not achieved, Charlotte was nonetheless ‘pleased to hear that the University are issuing rent refunds from 11th January,’ with an extension announced on Thursday meaning students staying at home during the lockdown will not have to pay rent until 8th March, when another review of on-campus teaching will take place.

Charlotte has also worked to aid students in privately owned accommodation. With a letter to help students talk to their landlords directly about their challenges and a second one signed by local MPs ‘asking landlords to consider our students and offer them any help, in particular to refund or discount their rent.’

The problems faced by students has made its way to the House of Commons this week, with Birmingham Selly Oak MP, Steve McCabe asking Universities Minister, Michelle Donelan, if she agreed with the Guild of Students ‘calling for full rent rebates until the Government deem it safe to return to university, and a no-penalty release from existing tenancy contracts.’ The Minister responded that students should ‘contact their university so that they could apply for hardship funding’.

Rent Strike UoB continues to advise students having problems with their landlords to contact their local ACORN renter’s union office, while Tom Wood is encouraged by the response to the campaign. ‘These are promising times for students’, he said, ‘as the rent strike movement shows, our generation is more than capable of uniting and fighting for the greater good, together.’

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