Extra Information: The UK has gone into another national lockdown similar to the one we had in March 2020. The government and the vice chancellor of UWE, Steve West, have told students not to return to university. Due to UWE Accommodation sending out a threatening email insinuating that they would involve police to hand out fines to students returning from Tier 3/4 areas before in-person teaching began again, this leaves us many of us stuck at home. Students rooms that are being paid for at full price are currently uninhabited, collecting dust. If we have explicitly been told by the university not to return to our accommodations why are we still being asked to pay full price? Last year, in this situation UWE allowed people to terminate their contracts early. Therefore, this time we should expect the same treatment. We are asking that UWE accommodation offer rent reductions to all students as well as giving students the option to fully terminate their accommodation contracts without financial detriment and continue studying from home for the year. It is unfair of them to cling to their contracts to keep students paying fees, at the detriment of our mental health. UWE must treat us like paying customers and human beings rather than a number on an income sheet.
Students in UWE accommodation are being charged upwards of £600 per month for accommodation that they're being advised to not live in. Students have been unable to use a multitude of services normally offered on campus and they deserve to have the option to be released from their contracts, have their rent reduced for the time they are not living on campus as well as when they are living on campus.