Cut the Rent Allege Crashing Princess Anne Visit to Garden Halls

Source: Cut the Rent

THE WIDELY POPULAR UCL CUT THE RENT MOVEMENT HAS PURPORTED TO HAVE CRASHED A VISITED ON BEHALF OF PRINCESS ANNE, THE CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON, TO THE INAUGURATION OF THE NEW LONDON STUDENT ACCOMMODATIONS, GARDEN HALLS.

Supposedly, UCL Cut The Rent, on 26 January, 2017, protested outside the building and therefore interrupting the inauguration services. As evidence for their claims, Cut The Rent have uploaded pictures onto social media of students protesting near a plaque that was unveiled that day by the chancellor.

However, internal sources within Garden Halls have said that while the demonstration did happen, it did not take place while Princess Anne was at the accommodation. This would mean that the inauguration itself was not “crashed” in anyway.

Despite the false claims, Garden Halls has been often singled out as a prime example for the student movements cause. The accommodation charges its guests from £189 to £258 a week, depending on the living options. This makes the student hall one of the more expensive options in London.

A source inside Cut The Rent has alleged that the University Partnership Programme, the group which built Garden Halls in partnership with the University of London, wants the accommodation to “function like a hotel”.

A Cut the Rent representative has said “student accommodation is extortionate and increasingly […] treated like a luxury good” and that this “trend” is a “deliberate policy shift in the wider privatization of Higher Education”.

Cut the Rent hopes to attract people’s attention and organize further actions to promote the campaign.