No strike fund protection for students taking part in rent strike

By Zoë Crowther, Students' Union Correspondent and Tom Taylor, Deputy Features Editor

Going against advice from NUS, a student rent strike will go ahead on Wednesday 1 May without a rent strike fund in place.

In February 2017, Bristol SU passed a motion to ‘support student rent strikes’ at its Annual Members Meeting. The motion argued that ‘the Union should support a rent strike movement at Bristol financially’ which included ‘campaign material costs and transport for speakers’.

The motion did not, however, mandate the Union to act as a guarantor for striking students. Instead, it stated that ‘the Union should make every attempt to act as a guarantor’ and at the AMM a student trustee confirmed that ‘there wasn’t enough information about how the Union could financially deal with having to act as a guarantor.’

As a result of this, the SU are in a peculiar position whereby they are bound to ‘support students who are taking rent action with advice’ but are incapable of guaranteeing strikers’ financial wellbeing.

NUS guidelines state that a ‘lesson learnt’ from previous university rent strikes is that a strike fund should be set up. This ‘is a bank account where payments can be sent, in lieu of paying rent, to ensure students don’t otherwise spend the money.’

The NUS suggest that ‘ideally this can be set up through your students’ union well in advance and publicised widely.’

Over 100 students in University owned accommodation have pledged to go on rent strike from Wednesday 1 May following a campaign by Bristol Cut the Rent. The campaign has already achieved some success, with the University recently agreeing to delay rent payments until the day of the next student loan instalment.

Whilst the SU have supported the rent strike publicly by sharing promotional videos and campaigning events, the Union told Epigram that: ‘We were not able to set up a strike fund due to internal capacity, but this was looked into.

‘We received feedback from other students’ unions which suggested that the existence of a strike fund did not discourage or encourage people to go on rent strikes, since most of the time the rent strikes went ahead without it just fine.’

The SU stated that ‘we agreed to support Cut the Rent with setting up their own account’ but was ‘not sure if this was pursued further’.

Bristol Cut the Rent confirmed to Epigram that they had not set up a strike fund. A representative from the group said that ‘a strike fund has never been done before for a University rent strike as it is different from a usual strike where strikers don’t get paid as they aren’t at work.’

The NUS guidelines, however, suggest that ‘it can be effective as leverage, to demonstrate to the university that the money is set aside, should they concede to demand.’

The guide uses the 2016 UCL rent strike as a case study: during the strike, students faced serious legal consequences after withholding rent and the NUS states that ‘on reflection the strike organisers regretted not setting up a strike fund early in the action. They only found out later that paying into a fund could be one way of protecting their credit rating.’

A Bristol University spokesperson told Epigram that ‘usual debt collecting procedures will be applied if any resident in University accommodation decides not to pay their full rent.’

Statistics on Bristol SU’s website indicate that rent in halls has ‘consistently risen by over double the rate of inflation over the last ten years’. Whilst the ‘national average of rent in halls is £131 per week, in Bristol halls the average is £161.'

Clearly, Bristol University has a problem with unaffordable student accommodation and students are suffering as a result. Failure to set up a strike fund, however, leaves students at financial risk in terms of credit ratings and weakens their bargaining power.

For more information, you can find the NUS guide for organising and participating in a rent strike here.

Featured Image: Epigram / Patrick Sullivan