Recent changes made to the Immigration Bill will ensure that landlords of purpose-built student accommodation will be exempt from having to conduct ongoing immigration checks on tenants.

The British Property Federation BPF has been lobbying for this exemption to be introduced since the summer of 2013 after the Government’s consultation document on the immigration Bill did not include an exemption for student accommodation.

Ian Fletcher, Director of Policy at the BPF, said: “We are very satisfied to see that our amendments to the Immigration Bill have been accepted. The time and resources that would have been spent by student accommodation providers carrying out these checks would have been completely wasted. If we want to see the UK’s higher education sector competing on the global stage then we need to make sure that we welcome those from other countries who want to study here, not make it more difficult for them.”

The BPF tabled an amendment on the grounds that international students go through rigorous visa checks before being accepted by a university and that requiring landlords to so the same would be a duplication of the same checks.