MANCHESTER University students have launched a rent strike to press their demands for an end to “extortionate” rents and a 30 per cent cash rebate.

Organisers Rent Strike UoM said that students were joining the strike at a rate of more than 30 a day and that they expected hundreds more to participate.

The strike, which began on Monday, has been triggered by the combined effects of the cost-of-living crisis and “overly expensive yet substandard accommodation” in university halls of residence, they said.

According to research by the National Union of Students, half of England’s students are in financial trouble and three-quarters expect this to affect their chances of academic success. 

Rent Strike UoM hopes to repeat the success of a rent strike in 2020-21. Students were recalled to university during the pandemic lockdown, only to find that face-to-face teaching had been suspended and that they were confined to their halls of residence, surrounded by a security fence and guards.

The students won rebates totalling £12 million from the university authorities.

Rent Strike UoM spokesman Fraser McGuire said that in 2020-21, Manchester University had a financial surplus of £61.4m and its current surplus is a record £119.7m.

“The cash rebate will help students deal with the cost-of-living crisis and the reduction in rent will provide much-needed relief to first-year students being pushed deeper into financial difficulties this year,” he said.

“We also demand that there be no increases in rent over the next three years to ensure that when our strike wins, the university doesn’t just put rents back up for next year — as they have done over the past two years.”

He argued that the 2020-21 rent strikers had “won through direct action and mass mobilisation of students to withhold rent from the university.”

Maintaining the strike for one month will involve each participant withholding £1,500 from the university.

“We believe we can win again, with more than 30 first-year students a day currently signing up to join the rent strike,” said Mr McGuire.

The University of Manchester was invited to comment.