An open letter to private accommodation providers of Leicester

There has not, for decades, been a time when compassion and generosity has been more in need.  

Staying in your accommodations are hundreds of students from the UK and around the world and, very understandably, they want to be near to the people closest to them. 

Government guidance has insisted that if they have not already moved away to be with their families, they must stay where they are to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

This means that many of these students still in your rooms are many miles from home and frequently scared and uncertain about the future. 

At De Montfort University we took the decision to cancel any outstanding fees for the remainder of this academic year to all students staying in our accommodation. 

Whether they had already gone home or whether they were to remain, we took away that extra, unnecessary layer of worry, that of meeting the financial cost of the accommodation. 

We know, from comments made by those students, that this was a welcome gesture, that it helped in difficult circumstances which were beyond their control. 

We ask, therefore, that you consider – if you have not already done so – doing the same. We understand the financial cost of this but we also understand, from the regular, emotional contact of students and their families, about the effect having to meet these financial obligations is having on them. 

We cannot compel you to do this, we can only ask. But, in the main, your tenants – our students – are young, uncertain and going through something we have never seen before. 

Please seriously consider this, 

Yours, 

De Montfort University 

De Montfort Students’ Union