Research by Our West Lancashire showed occupancy levels below 80% and many properties for sale or empty

Our West Lancashire have released the findings of recent research carried out based on door to door visiting around 130 student properties in the town.

The main findings have been passed to council officers and were:

• 11 student properties were empty/up for sale
• Occupancy levels in total were down to 79%
• 3 student properties now had either no student occupants at all or were mixed student/non-student houses

Ormskirk East Councillor, Janet Ingman led the initiative and said, “We called on student properties to welcome them to Ormskirk and make sure they had no concerns. We were able to address one or two matters such as resident parking permits. However, it was also clear that the demand for student housing in Ormskirk is falling. 11 of the properties we visited were empty and several of those were up for sale.”

Cllr Ingman said that this had implications for the development of the new local plan. It also presented opportunities for some rebalancing of the housing market in Ormskirk. “The council has funds from the sale of council houses that must be used to replace those sold. There may be scope in the next couple of years to use this funding to purchase selected former student properties for lower cost council housing for local families”, she said.