It is now a well-known fact that as of Monday 4th January 2021, yet another national lockdown has been put in place. And with the new lockdown, the Prime Minister has instigated a new ‚’Tier 5‚’ to be put in place. It is evident that when these new rules were introduced, many questions arose. One of the key problems I have found (with personal experience) is that many university students have been paying landlords for accommodation, which is in fact impossible for the students to access. It is well known that student accommodation is expensive and quite frankly, far from luxurious. The majority of landlords, when faced with this crisis, opted to continue charging students for accommodation that cannot be used (as with tier 5 in place, travelling unnecessarily is strictly prohibited). In consequence, thousands of students are paying huge amounts for a house or flat that cannot be inhabited to its full extent, often not at all. As far as university goes, a vast number of students stay in debt for many years to come and, especially through these challenging times may find it difficult to find a line of work to help pay towards accommodation and university debt. This is most certainly a serious problem that needs to be accounted for.
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