What’s the difference between Oxford and Cambridge that makes a such a difference in the way each city deals with landlords and students?
Cambridge has a student population of around 30,000 - making up one in four of the population of 120,000.
Oxford is also home to around 30,000 students out of a slightly larger population of 135,000.
Both have a history of around 800 years of academia and both are leading world seats of learning.
The similarities stop there.
Oxford is the leading council advocating tougher controls on private student shared homes or houses in multiple occupation.
The council has had some recent maulings in court while flexing muscles to crack down on landlords and lost a high profile High Court action with Milton keynes and Newcastle to try and reverse government policy on HMO planning article 4 planning restrictions.
Councillors have stirred up a hornet’s nest of protest over student housing policy.
Oxford is the first place to impose a city-wide ban on new shared houses and regularly prosecutes ‘rogue landlords’ for shared housing offences.
Meanwhile Cambridge has no article 4 restriction on new shared homes and has not applied for any such order yet.
Prosecutions against landlords are rare, while the councils and universities seem to have an easier relationship than their counterparts in Oxford.
The assumption is that the students come from similar backgrounds in terms of education, wealth and social order.
The telling difference seems to be politics. Oxford City Council predominantly has a history of Labour control, while Cambridge is Tory.
Another interesting point - Leeds is the city that prosecutes most landlords and is controlled by Labour. Manchester is also at the vanguard of activities against student landlords - and that’s right, the council is Labour controlled.
A cynic might observe a pattern emerging.
For landlords, many councils have 50% of their seats up for grabs in the next elections due in May.
Council elections have a generally poor turnout and several hundred landlords voting can make a big difference - perhaps it’s time to flex some political clout in the ballot box for landlords.
