'They're laughing at us': Students feel powerless as accommodation concerns go ignored

ITV News

28-05-2025

The ceiling collapses, students scream, and a black substance pours onto the bed below.
Sounds like a horror film? Well that was the video that stopped me in my tracks as I was scrolling through TikTok, the video that kicked off an investigation into inadequate student accommodation.
When the students at Loughborough University posted that video, I'm not sure they expected an ITV News reporter to journey there to take a look at the aftermath, but the image was so stark that I needed to see the reality for myself.
On arrival, the block smelt of damp and, strangely, of soil. It transpired that this wasn't the first time this had happened - a ceiling fell in the exact same block earlier in the term. Surely this wasn't an isolated case at one university. We were determined to find out.
After a call out on social media we were flooded with hundreds of emails and comments from students across the country complaining about the state of their accommodation, that their complaints were largely dismissed or not taken seriously – the majority felt it was because they were students.
"I had no water in my taps for seven months" one student told us, another said they've "constantly been getting sick" due to the damp in their student halls, whilst another told us pipes were "leaking brown water" onto her bed.
Despite complaints coming through thick and fast, many were scared to speak out. These institutions hold each student's future in their hands, childhood dreams potentially achieved through their chosen degrees, so they suffer in silence, sometimes at the mercy of the very institutions they're paying for an education from.
It's no surprise ITV News received such a visceral reaction when we reached out to students – a survey by Save the Student earlier this year found 69% of students had at least one issue with their student housing.
Furthermore, over a third of students surveyed claimed issues were not solved within a week whilst 7% claimed that issues were never solved with their student housing.
We first travelled to the University of Sussex to investigate this further, where we met with Ahmed Mustafa, an international student from Pakistan studying marketing.
It was his first year living abroad and he was excited to experience what universities in the UK have to offer, the campus lifestyle, a new degree to add to his CV and the chance to meet new friends – his experience was far from what he was expecting.
Ahmed said on his first day he was told his allotted room in a shared flat was not available, because it was undergoing maintenance. He decided to take a look.
"Then I read the words pest control written outside my room,' he told us.
After he moved in, the flat became plagued with cockroaches, crawling through groceries, in bedrooms and bathrooms and on dishes.
'They just kept coming, like every other day. It was just getting worse in my kitchen. Cockroaches were everywhere… washing cockroach faeces from my dishes every single day was just so dehumanising of an experience,' he said.
Ahmed was moved into temporary accommodation several times during his first few months on campus, but each time he returned to the flat, he says he and his flatmates had countless pest control visits, disrupting their education and social life.
He told ITV News it took them seven months to find a permanent solution.
Ahmed said: 'Grades, social life, all was ruined, just because they didn't listen the first time'.
Most shockingly, it appeared staff working at the building did not take his complaints seriously, a common complaint we heard whilst investigating student accommodation.
Ahmed says he encountered one member of staff who made him question how the university saw him and his flatmates.
"This woman told me to my face that she is surprised that I am complaining because 'where I come from', my culture or my home, essentially it's pretty common," he said.
"I live with cockroaches, so I should be chill. Why am I complaining for six months? And it threw me off a bit that she thinks this way."
We discovered it wasn't just university-owned accommodation that appeared to be falling into disarray, but private student halls that were in fact recommended by the institutions themselves.
Multiple students studying in Manchester messaged us about their privately-owned accommodation.
When we visited, we were taken around multiple flats in one building. Students passing each other in the halls were already voicing their complaints.
'Did you hear Flat 9 has cockroaches?' one said to another.
Allegedly the occupants of the flat had been complaining about the vermin for weeks before anyone came to solve the problem.
Abigail Chisanga, a 20-year-old student in the city, walked us up to her flat as she listed the issues she and her neighbours had been facing since they moved in.
'They're looking at us and laughing at us,' she said, regarding the countless complaints she's made about her living conditions. She's had a constant leak from her shower which has had no permanent fix since November.
Abigail told us: 'It's the fact that they're just refusing to actually want to have proper conversations, like they're treating us like we're children.'
Multiple students from the building came to us with complaints, some of whom are paying over £800 a month to live on the premises. They claim they arrived to showers which were filthy with mould and fridges left uncleaned.
Reports of vermin were allegedly not acted upon for weeks and, when we visited, we saw evidence of severe leaks in multiple flats.
19-year-old student Niamh Davies showed us a video of a light fixture in the bathroom of her flatmate's room.
Dirty water appeared to be pouring through the light fixture, which they say began tripping the electrics for the rest of the flat. It allegedly took six months to get fixed.
Niamh also said they had no hot water in their taps for a month.
'I had a bucket, luckily, " she told us. "I would just boil the kettle a couple times… and then shower out of a bucket.'
'It's just a shame. These issues haven't just been going on this year, we know now from other students who lived here before. Because there's a new set of students every September. These issues keep getting pushed back to the point where it's just the next tenant's problem.'
We took our findings to Save the Student's Communications Director, Tom Allingham, who said unfortunately a lack of accommodation options means 'people do sometimes take advantage of students".
'They don't have the experience, they don't necessarily know their rights or in some cases, to be blunt, they know that the students won't really have any other options [and] they end up having to leave the property, that they're actually going to have nowhere to live," he said.
"So in a lot of cases, students will just remain quiet because they're afraid of being left homeless basically.'
'The numbers of students going to university is currently at a record high, and the level of student accommodation hasn't kept up with… demand is growing and growing and growing, supply isn't quite meeting that.
'With that, not only is cost going to go up, but in some cases, clearly people are allowing standards to slide a little bit because they know that the customers, the students don't really have any choice.
"So yes, the property might be in an awful condition, but ultimately, on balance, students are deciding it's better than nowhere to live.'
Since ITV News alerted institutions to the conditions in Manchester, the universities have removed the recommendation from their websites.
Loughborough University, mentioned at the start of this piece, told us: 'As soon as the University was made aware of this issue action was taken to support the student impacted. A thorough inspection of the accommodation was carried out and the root cause of the issue has been identified and repaired.
"Detailed checks of other rooms in the student housing block have taken place.'
The University of Sussex told us it treats any issue that impacts the wellbeing of its students "very seriously".
"After repeated attempts to eradicate the problem, we decided that the best option was to move all Norwich House residents to alternative, upgraded campus accommodation.
'We unreservedly apologise for the disruption caused by this decision. We would not have made this decision unless it was absolutely necessary. To help ease the impact of the move, we offered residents a goodwill payment, food vouchers, and laundry credit.
"At Sussex, we are committed to providing the best possible student experience. Over the past five years, we have provided 2,117 new bedrooms on campus through the creation of our East Slope student village, alongside new study, social and retail spaces. Further redevelopment is underway to add over 2,000 new high-quality bedspaces, which will include en-suite, shared, family, and fully accessible accommodation.
"We take any reports of prejudice or racism extremely seriously and do not tolerate such behaviour. A formal investigation into these claims is currently under way."
Universities UK said: 'Universities care deeply about the experience their students have, including where they live, and work hard to maintain the highest standards. The Accommodation Code of Practice exists to monitor independent audits into quality standards across all accommodation owned or managed by a university."