‘The rents keep on rising and so do we’: Reflections on the 2021 Rent Strike at Sussex University

Abstract

In January 2021, over 700 students living in the UK’s University of Sussex accommodation withheld their rent in defiance of the unacceptable conditions of housing and unreasonable rent prices. Primarily, this was a reaction to their anger and upset at how Sussex had falsely assured them that, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they should expect a normal student experience. However, the rent strike action also needs to be contextualised within an understanding of how the neoliberalization of higher education has led to a situation of low quality but high rent student accommodation across the UK - and how students have been fighting back. The following discussion looks at the position of student renters in a higher education system driven by market forces; the implications of your university simultaneously being your landlord; and the extraordinary conditions which led to the rent strike at Sussex. While students at Sussex showed the power of collective action in forcing the University to eventually concede to some of the strike’s demands, this article also highlights the unprecedented struggles the movement faced in light of the pandemic. For a movement so reliant on reaching out and mobilising students, the Sussex Rent Strike also provides student and housing activists a useful understanding of both the advantages and limits of digital organising.