What began as a cunning plan to hit all those speculative developers building language schools everywhere is threatening to ignite the biggest Town-Gown fall out for years. You can see why Oxford City Council wants to make those behind student accommodation schemes contribute towards desperately needed social housing in the city. Too many developers are building flats for students rather than homes for families and the city’s homeless.

Ironically, as councillor Colin Cook readily admits, this is the result of the city council’s earlier policy. With builders undertaking housing developments having to pay hefty contributions towards social housing, you can see why putting up student blocks is a more attractive option. But to close this loophole has left both Oxford’s universities contemplating a huge new levy, which will see a big drop in student accommodation schemes, and more students having to live in the rented sector. The submissions to the inspector make clear the depth of the universities’ concerns, with suggestions of their future development being damaged.

To make matters worse the affordable housing charge is only part of a package designed to keep students out of residential parts of the city. The universities seem to have every right to feel squeezed and unappreciated. If they want to put their students in new accommodation, there is now a heavy financial price to pay. At the same time if more than 3,000 students live in city homes, universities face severe punishment — they could even be stopped from moving into their new buildings. They must fear too what will happen when they have paid towards all this affordable housing. More people complaining about student ghettos?