UNIVERSITY chiefs must curb admissions and build more housing to help communities “damaged” by Winchester’s growing student population, a young campaigner has warned.

Callum Kennard, a Winchester University student, says its “unsustainable” intake is pushing up rents, pricing local workers out of housing and putting youngsters into former council estates where residents are upset by noise.

The Giving Homes Back to Our Community initiative, launched this month as part of Mr Kennard’s election bid for Winchester City Council, urges vice-chancellor Joy Carter to build new halls of residence on empty sites in Winnall.

Winchester University accepted a record 2,250 students in September without enough rooms to house them, forcing many freshers into temporary hotel rooms or private rental. Bosses intend to maintain this admissions rate until 2019.

Mr Kennard, a 20-year-old studying politics and global studies, says landlords are profiting from room rentals which can exceed £500 a month.

“They snap up houses at really cheap prices and they flog them off really expensively to students,” he told the Hampshire Chronicle. “I don’t think it’s fair on residents because the residents are pretty much seeing their local communities not destroyed but damaged, because they have been kept up all night by students.”

An influx of students into Winnall and Stanmore over the last decade has angered some residents, who say noisy parties and anti-social behaviour are upsetting community cohesion.

Cllr Kelsie Learney, leader of the city council’s Liberal Democrat group, said over half of the estimated 700 homes sold under the Right to Buy have been converted into houses in multiple occupation, “giving large profits to private landlords”.

Mr Kennard, a Lib Dem running in St John and All Saints, added: “For students it isn’t really that fair either, because there’s such high demand they’ve got to get part time jobs [to pay]. Not everyone’s got rich parents which can help.

“The solution right now is to build a lot more student accommodation, because that’s the big issue.”

“There are so many ideal sites in Winnall: abandoned houses – derelict fields – and there’s just nothing there. I really think they can be remade into student accommodation.”

A Winchester University spokesman said: “Currently, the university has no plans to increase our student numbers or to build more student accommodation. We have overhauled our student housing application system so that we will be able to re-allocate unwanted places in halls to limit the need to use temporary accommodation.”

Hampshire Chronicle: