Leicester based student accommodation charity Sulets will be giving a rent discount to student tenants who live in houses leased by the charity.
The lockdown that started in early January has had a particular impact on students. Many have found themselves unable to return to their studies on campus. While they are able to continue learning online at home, they are paying for accommodation that they cannot live in. This has caused financial concern for them, especially as most have lost their sources of additional income in the hospitality and retail sectors.
To help students in Leicester, who are in our leased housing, Sulets will be applying a discount to the overall rent for nearly 250 students this academic year. For most this will be equivalent to 4 weeks rent being paid for them. Sulets has been able to achieve this through prudent cash flow management and ongoing financial control.
In the first lockdown period in the spring of last year, Sulets took similar action and released over 250 student tenants in its leased housing, from their final rent payment. On that occasion the financial burden was shared with landlords. This time the full economic impact will be taken on by the charity.
Sulets CEO, Irving Hill said, ‘We are very aware of the impact that the current lockdown is having on students. As an educational charity, with a clear mission to do the best for students, we are committed to helping where we can at this time, as we did in 2020’.
He continued, ‘The money we are using to provide this discount would normally be used to build the resources that we need to continue to provide a high-quality service for students in Leicester. We are able to do this because we run an efficient operation that ensures we can react positively in times of unexpected hardship for our student tenants.’
‘Our Trustee Board is fully supportive of this initiative and we hope that the action we are taking will help students who are currently having a difficult time.’
