A Councillors Cry For Help
Local councillor for Crookes, Minesh Parekh, is determined to help students during the cost-of-living crisis. The chair of the Local Area Committee denied his request to review the £100,000 South West Sheffield LAC budget on Tuesday after Parekh and Ruth Milsom delivered an urgent letter. They requested all spending of the budget should stop immediately considering the crisis.
Minesh Parekh said: “I personally believe holding a budget means you have a responsibility to use it and we should do the most we can to help”.
A big concern for students during this time is the increased cost of their rent, bills and food. Minesh is currently setting up regular meetings with Sheffield labour students and the leader of the council to ensure student voices are represented.
As he was recently a student himself, Minesh stood for election this year with the hope to bring in ‘landlord licensing’. Many big cities use this and it involves all landlords being registered with the council and all houses have to meet higher standards. It also helps to reduce energy bills therefore, reducing the cost of bills for tenants.
Anonymous 22 year old student from Sheffield Hallam University says the situation is “terrifying… my bills have gone up by £10 a week and my student loan doesn’t cover it. I have to work more to pay for bills and food and on top of that have time to do my degree and focus on my future.”
Due to students usually only living in a house for one year at a time they aren’t able to get fixed term letting contracts that long term renters can. Meaning students have felt the rise on spending caps more. Inflation is increasing at 10% each year. However, student finance only increases maintenance loans by 2% each year. The average student living costs come to £810 a month. In most cases, student loans do not cover this and students have to work. This is having an effect on students’ mental health as 49% of students have felt they have financial difficulties.
Some student campaign groups such as ‘don’t pay’ and ‘enough is enough’ are focusing on energy bills during the crisis. Any students are welcome to join and get involved in this. Minesh Parekh also suggests writing to your local councillors about your opinions and situations to give them a better idea of how it’s affecting people in the area.
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By Aaliyah Dublin