Moved Permanently

More students are having to remain living at home during their studies in order to save money, a student survey by Lloyds TSB has revealed.

Currently, 27 per cent of students choose to stay living at home rather than incur the expense of paying for their own place. Research done by the Guardian newspaper revealed that since 2003 the number of first year students living at home had risen by almost 6,000 to 72,780 last year.

Despite the fall in house prices brought on by the recession, rented accommodation costs remained consistent, even for student accommodation. London fared worst for weekly rent for student accommodation.  The average price of student accommodation in Kingston is around £85 p/w, higher than other city-based universities such as Southampton (60 p/w) or Birmingham (£65 p/w).

Tom, 21, an Kingston undergraduate living at home in North London said: “I just can’t really afford to rent anywhere and do my degree at the same time. It takes me about an hour to get to campus from home every day but there isn’t much I can do about that.”

There is also evidence that leaving home after graduating may not be any easier. Office of National Statistics figures show the number of people in their twenties unable to afford life on their own has increased year on year.

The number of 20-24 year old choosing to remain at home steadily increased since the mid-90s. In 1995, an estimated 50 per cent of 20-24 year old men and 36 per cent of women lived at home. Recently 2008 figures show these have increased to 58 and 39 per cent respectively, despite the near 400,000 increase in university students since 2001.

This phenomenon has given way to the label ‘twixters’ to describe young people apparently unwilling or unable to strike out on their own in the real world.

A number of factors have been attributed to their increase. Steadily increasing house prices have put many off in recent years according to the results of the 2008 Survey of English Housing. The number of under 30’s buying with a mortgage was down eight per cent compared to 2001, a trend set to continue as the recession continues.

Another factor comes from the introduction of top-up-fees in 2007. According to ‘Push’, the independent guide to UK universities, students graduating in 2008 can now expect to leave with average debts of £20,000. Kingston students can expect to leave with average tuition fees of £5,996 alone, excluding living expenses and top-up-fees, which the government has recently proposed should be increased to between £4,000 and £20,000.

Unemployment brought on by the recession is likely to have another large effect on young people trying to move out. An estimated 44,000 fewer people aged 18-24 were in full time employment between October-December 2008 compared to 2007.