The Holt hall, the oldest hall in Loughborough, is set to close at the end of this academic year.
Home to over 200 students, there is a lot of speculation surrounding why this decision has been made. There have been disputes between Unite and Imago with regards to the accommodation fees, with a single en-suite room costing £5,254.20 for a 42 week let in the 2012/13 academic year.
Comparing this to other self catered Unite run halls such as William Morris, which charges £4,578.60 for a 39 week let, it is clear that pricing is a big issue, especially with students now paying £9,000 tuition fees.
It is a known fact that The Holt find it difficult to keep returners in their halls for second and third year, due to its situation on campus and high pricing. Previous Holt Rag Rep Peter Hall, who decided to leave the hall after his fresher year, told Label 'The sheer issue is price. I couldn’t really afford to return to the hall for two years, the hall spirit isn’t as bad as people make out, but you can get much better value for money in town. It is gutting after the work people have put in to making the hall, but it has been a long time coming.'
Hall Chair from 2010/11 Michael Munday, who was also a resident within The Holt for three years said: ‘The problem with the Holt is the cost of the accommodation, which even when I was there from Sept 08- July 11 there was a big increase with the amount paid in final year being 21% higher than I paid as a fresher.
The costs of accommodation is putting students off from living in The Holt and this is affecting their experience, something the committees in previous years have been working hard to fix’
Current Holt hall chair, Rachel Stone, told Label she was ‘very upset by the news and we will be petitioning for Unite to lower their fees’. There are many students like Rachel who will be petitioning against Unite to try and get them to lower the accommodation prices, particularly as they have gone up by £600 this year, but some admit 'it's all a bit of a mess a at the moment'.
More to follow on this story on Label online, and issue 5 of Label, released this Friday.
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