º£½ÇÊÓÆµ

Oops.

Our website is temporarily unavailable in your location.

We are working hard to get it back online.

PRIVACY
Economic Development

Selly Oak MP calls for review of city's student housing market

Steve McCabe says his constituency is already swamped with student bedrooms as applications for even more are waved through

A row of houses to rent in Selly Oak - a typical scene for the suburb

A Birmingham MP wants a root and branch review of the student housing market in the city as neighbourhoods are being blighted by piecemeal development.

MP Steve McCabe says parts of his constituency are swamped with student accommodation at the same time as further planning applications are being approved.

As well as purpose-built apartment blocks, many family homes lining Selly Oak's terraced streets have been converted and extended to cram in students - a move which led to the

Mr McCabe was speaking out after recording studio site on Bristol Road were approved by the council's planning committee.

The block was recently described by a resident as a 'grain silo for students'.

The studio, based in a former engineering factory where the likes of Black Sabbath, ELO and Slade have played and recorded,

About 1,000 student flats are in development in the area while rows upon rows of terraced family houses have also been converted for students.

The MP said: "We need a full review of student housing in the city. The planning department should stop approving these schemes until it has taken a good look at the overall supply and demand for student housing and suitability and location of sites."