NEW guidance on the development of student accommodation to prevent high-level concentration areas of undergraduate and postgraduate flats could be rolled out across Glasgow.

Following a public consultation with around 500 individual responses, proposals for any new student properties in south Partick/Yorkhill and Townhead/Cowcaddens will not be supported by the city council.

The Glasgow Caledonian University campus was expected to be part of the concentration area but has been removed. The aim is to look at how these developments are managed and look at ways to tie this to mainstream housing. A report was brought before a council committee meeting earlier in the week.

Councillor Angus Miller said: “I want to thank officers for the work they have done in pulling this together.

“Myself and my colleagues have been promoting the need for a better deal with the over-concentration of private student accommodation in the city and that’s a message we’ve been hearing very much from our constituents.

“It’s really great to see it at the stage with a really strong set of guidelines so hopefully help deal with some of these issues that our communities have been facing and looking for action on for some time in terms of planning policy.”

If approved the policy will ensure any new student housing will meet a minimum space standard and can be publicly accessed from the ground floor.

It will also see the introduction of mixed tenure requirements for homes over a certain development site threshold and the submission of a management plan.

Councillor Allan Casey said: “This piece of work demonstrates how well this committee has worked over the years because we now have a policy that each of us has developed through the away days we had and public information centre.

“I want to thank members for bringing forward this policy and highlight the addition to the minimum space standards for bedrooms.

“The message that was coming through quite clearly from student representatives was the lack of space that they had. They had a lot of concern about being crammed into tight wee boxes.

“We have demonstrated the council has made a commitment to certain space standards for certain bedrooms which is really important. This is about providing a high-quality standard of living for students in the city as well.”

The proposals will now be presented to the Scottish Government who if satisfied with the recommendations will adopt it as part of their meeting housing needs guidance.