Policy information sourced from Camden Local Plan

H9 Student Housing

The Council will aim to ensure that there is a supply of student housing available at costs to meet the needs of students from a variety of backgrounds in order to support the growth of higher education institutions in Camden and Camden’s international academic reputation.

We will seek a supply of student housing to meet or exceed Camden’s target of 160 additional places in student housing per year and will support the development of student housing provided that the development:

  1. will not involve the net loss of 2 or more self-contained homes;
  2. will not prejudice the Council’s ability to meet the target of 742 additional self-contained homes per year;
  3. will not involve a site identified for self-contained housing through a current planning permission or a development plan document unless it is shown that the site is no longer developable for self-contained housing;
  4. complies with any relevant standards for houses in multiple occupation (HMOs);
  5. serves higher education institutions that are accessible from it;
  6. includes a range of flat layouts including flats with shared facilities wherever practical and appropriate;
  7. has an undertaking in place to provide housing for students at one or more specific education institutions, or otherwise provide a range of accommodation that is affordable to the student body as a whole;
  8. will be accessible to public transport, workplaces, shops, services, and community facilities;
  9. contributes to creating a mixed, inclusive and sustainable community; and
  10. does not create a harmful concentration of such a use in the local area or cause harm to nearby residential amenity

Where proposed student housing development is not robustly secured as student housing that provides accommodation affordable to the student body in accordance with criterion (7), the Council will expect the development to provide an appropriate amount of affordable housing for general needs having regard to Policy H4 Maximising the supply of affordable housing.

We will resist development that involves the net loss of student housing unless either:

  • it can be demonstrated that the existing accommodation is incapable of meeting contemporary standards or expectations for student housing; or
  • adequate replacement accommodation will be provided that satisfies criteria (1) to (10) above;
  • it can be demonstrated that the accommodation is no longer needed because the needs of students at the institutions that it serves can be better met in existing accommodation elsewhere.

Where the Council is satisfied that a development involving the loss of student housing is justified, we will expect it to create an equivalent amount of floorspace in another permanent housing use, such as self-contained housing (in Use Class C3), including an appropriate amount of affordable housing, having regard to Policy H4.

For more information please see the Local Plan