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NEWS
Thursday November 24, 2022
News 2 Editor Vacant Deputy Editor Vacant Opinion 6 Editor Laura Rowe Deputy Editor Emilia Vulliamy Features 24 Editor Kaitlyn Beattie-Zarb Deputy Editor Vacant Lifestyle 26 Editor Amber Handley Deputy Editor Vacant Science & Tech 27 Editor Oliver Fisher Deputy Editor Vacant Climate 28 Editor Joe Lee Deputy Editor Vacant Sport 30 Editor Jacob Bassford Deputy Editor Vacant Stage S3 Editor Kayleigh Wittenbrink Deputy Editor Vacant Screen S4 Editor Jed Wagman Deputy Editor Vacant Music S5 Editor Alicia Ward Deputy Editor Vacant Food S6 Editor Navya Verma Deputy Editor Vacant Relationships S7 Editor Otty Allum Deputy Editor Vacant Tech S8 Editor Dan Gordon-Potts Deputy Editor Vacant Books S10 Editor Kate Shelton Deputy Editor Vacant Travel S11 Editor Lizzy MacKay Deputy Editor Vacant
Editor Katie Preston Editor Marti Stelling Deputy Editor Dan Bennett SCENE Editor Emily Sinclair Chief Subeditor Megan Bartley Subeditor Philippa Salmon Subeditor Caro Sherlock Subeditor Miri Huntley Subeditor Jacob Bassford Subeditor Alexis Casas Illustrator Niall McGenity, Illustrator Ottty Allum Managing Director Matt Davis Deputy Managing Director Ellie Defries Social Media Director Alicia Ward Technical Director Marks Polakovs Head of Multimedia Vacant Opinions expressed in York Vision are not necessarily those of the Editors, Editorial Team, membership, or advertisers.
ANXIETY AMONGST STUDENTS DUE TO COST OF LIVING CRISIS
PRIVATE ACCOMMODATION RENT PRICES SOAR IN YORK
IMAGE: MARTI STELLING
BY KATIE PRESTON AND EMILY SINCLAIR
PRIOR TO THE current cost of living crisis, rent statistics across the country were already demonstrating the impacts of Brexit, COVID-19 and a failing economy. Now due to increasing energy rates, anxiety amongst students for affording rent in the private sector has greatly increased. Recorded between October 2020 and September 2021, median monthly rent was £755 for England, the highest ever recorded at the time. According to Save the Student, the average amount students pay for rent in the UK is £148, around £641 per month, despite the average maintenance loan being just £470. Currently, approximately 56% of students have to borrow money from parents, banks and friends to help pay rent, with the continuing cost of living crisis worsening the financial impact on students. In 2022, the National Union of
Students found that one in three students are left with less than £50 after paying rent and bills. A further 96% are also having to cut back on general spending due to the cost of living. Katie, Vision’s Editor and President, expressed anger at her already high rent increasing: “My rent is already around £181 per week with bills included. Paying rent quarterly, we each have to fork out over £2.1k every three months, with our upcoming January rent being quite a concern for us both due to cost of living over Christmas”. According to a survey by Save the Student, the average student falls £439 a month short of covering average living costs (approximately £924 a month), with 66% of students believing that the Maintenance Loan is not enough to cover basic living essentials. In order to be be a student, you fundamentally need somewhere to live - with prices sky rocketing, it is no surprise that
A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS Katie Preston Co-Editor she/her
IT MAY ONLY be November, but I am calling this print our festive edition. That’s right, you are now legally required to read this edition while listening to Michael Bublé’s Christmas album and baking a gingerbread house. For me, this time of year means birth-
days, Christmas markets, cosy knitwear, and cheesy Hallmark films. My plans postprint are to finish Lindsay Lohan’s new Christmas film, go ice skating at the Designer Outlet, and walk around York Christmas Market with a very expensive Baileys hot chocolate in hand.
Marti Stelling Co-Editor she/her
I like to use this space to share a bit about what we have been up to as a paper. We’ve met weekly as an editorial team to catch up on what’s going on at the University, and to discuss ideas for print and online. We have provided online coverage of the Royal Visit, strike dates, cost of living,
people are choosing to live at home to study or having to rule out university all together. In 2020-21, 2.66 million students were studying at UK higher education providers according to UniversitiesUK. With such a high amount of students, universities and cities across the country are now feeling the pressure as record numbers fight to secure places to live. For students, the uncertainty is a main part of the worry. In York, Adam Bennet, one of the major property companies, has already released their 2023/24 rentals, yet other big companies such as Sinclair Properties, and IG Properties have yet to do so. This means that current second and third years are unsure on whether to jump and secure a new house, and freshers are stuck not knowing the best course of action. It’s a perfect storm. Landlords have no easy task. With the government promising help despite not outlining what
that may be, it is a challenge to produce a reasonable yet realistic figure. The average rent for properties in York at the moment is £1,580 pcm and with Nimble Fins predicting an average UK houshold to spend £671 on living expenses, prices are regularly increasing at drastic rates On those figures, the average weekly rent per person for a 6 person house should be £177.50, not taking into account council tax or considering that houses of upwards of six tennants are likely to use more energy. On top of this, landlords want to make profit, especially as many of them have lost out on money this year due to pre-agreed contracts coupled with ever-increasing energy bills. With the cost of living crisis likely to worsen over the festive period, students anxiety is at an all time high when it comes to financial woes.
and the appointment of our new Chancellor. In other exciting events, our Screen team attended the Aesthetica Film Festival, which you can read all about on our website! We’ve grown as a society this term, putting a real emphasis on socials. Alongside our weekly post-meeting trips to The Courtyard, we’ve teamed up with other media groups to get to know each other better and build stronger relationships between the groups! We’ve had our joint Halloween social at York Student Cinema with The Lemon Press, where we dressed up to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In our last edition, we implemented the addition of pronouns to our bylines. As a paper, we are fully trans-inclusive and want to normalise asking people for their preferred pronouns. One of our core values is to make sure every student is represented in student media, and we are proud to give a platform to any student who has a topic they want to share. Our current editorial team is the most diverse yet, and we are committed to making York Vision an environment where everybody
feels included and welcome. In this print, you can read about College Presidents’ mental health being sidelined, and our main story is an interview with Halifax President Issy Davis’ on her horrific experiences with online sexual harassment, a story I am very privileged to have written. In Opinion, we have a variety of articles ranging from the positives of Open Door, the inability to access prescriptions and the damaging rhetoric of “heroin chic” on women’s body image. We also have numerous interesting articles such as an interview with Goodricke’s Cost of Living Representative in Features, where the “red nails” TikTok theory is a myth in Lifestyle, and whether the University’s Sustainability grant is enough. Why not make getting involved with campus news your new years resolution? If you would like to join our growing team, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing vision@yusu.org. Holiday greetings and gay happy meetings, Marti and Katie