My dear, dear daughters

AM IN THE fortunate, or unfortunate, position of having twin daughters at university. Fortunate to have them; unfortunate in that everything comes at double cost.
This includes paying rent for their accommodation. We have only just managed, yet again, to find them somewhere to live for their final year.

It is the third year in a row that I am being ripped off by greedy landlords who line their pockets at the expense of students desperate for somewhere to live.

Both daughters are doing a four-year course — one at Reading, the other in Norwich — with a year in France. For the year abroad, one was offered accommodation that resembled a prison cell block. For the other daughter no accommodation was available and we had to rent a studio. We did not just have to rent it for the academic year, but for 12 months at approximately £350 a month with two months’ deposit up front. When French students come to my daughter’s university here, they are given places in hall; it is odd how rarely reciprocal agreements exist.

During their first year they stayed in hall, as is customary. During their second year we had to pay inflated rent for a room in a rundown house in Norwich, and for a room in a more upmarket house in Reading.

But I thought, after the rent we paid in Paris, that was the end of it. We were home and dry. I had expected both daughters to go back into hall for their final year and just pay residence fees by the term, meaning that I was not paying deposits, or rent for July and August and for Christmas and Easter holidays.