Unipol is a unique student housing charity, established in 1975. We are passionate about helping students find the best housing.
We provide help and assistance to students renting in the private sector, provide direct housing to students in Leeds, Nottingham and Bradford, run a number of accreditation schemes and train and promote best practice in student housing.
Unipol is not only at the centre of student housing but is involved at every level: information, advice, policy development and setting, measuring and checking standards.
Our values are:
To be trusted - as a source of help and advice to both students and landlords who want to rent and provide good quality student accommodation that contributes to a great student experience.
To be impartial experts - giving student consumers information and advice, based on 40 years' experience in the sector, which empowers them to make good housing choices and get the best deal available. We establish, promote, publicise best practice in student accommodation.
To provide value for money - providing a first class service to our users which uses the latest technology to allow on-line global accessibility; we recognise the importance of meeting differing students needs and providing value for money and choice throughout the housing process.
To promote safety and wellbeing - setting and checking standards to make student accommodation as safe and secure as possible to give peace of mind to all concerned and providing a good quality living environment that is so important in the learning process.
To promote community - whilst we promote individuality we encourage positive attitudes to equality, cultural diversity and the internationalism inherent in undertaking study in higher education.
To be ethical - valuing our human resources, investing in training and sector expertise and ensuring we pay our employees the living wage. We provide information for our tenants on how to use less energy in a comfortable living environment and use local suppliers and trades wherever possible.
To be transparent and accountable - being answerable, as a charity to our Board of trustees and to our users we make our agenda and operations as clear and open as we can.
Our Forward Look infographic sums up our values, our mission and our strategy for the coming years:
Putting our values into practice
All of our advice services to students are free
Our website gives quick tips and in-depth information for those who want it
We recognise high quality buildings and management through robust Unipol accreditation schemes (the Codes) and promote those landlords who commit themselves to delivering this
In Unipol’s own housing
We house just over 3,000 students on a not for profit basis and our housing stock caters to the diversity of the student population.
We offer the best deal we can to our tenants, there are no fees or hidden charges, nor do we ask adult students to be backed by a guarantees. Our housing revenue goes to subsidise housing for students with dependents (normally families), maintain a range of low-cost accommodation, support investment in higher quality properties and helps subsidise our advice and accreditation mission.
We continue to invest in sustainability with better infrastructure and more information for our tenants on energy and carbon footprint reduction. We use local traders where possible to provide our service and improve our buildings.
We aim to give our tenants a great housing experience, providing good value, promoting social academic interaction and high quality housing - we want a Unipol property to be a home from home.