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LIVING IN DENMARK

New Copenhagen student housing cut due to fire safety rules

A construction project which would have increased the number of student residencies in Copenhagen by 180 was forced into a significant cutback due to fire safety rules, according to media reports in Denmark.

Published: 13 September 2021 17:32 CEST
New Copenhagen student housing cut due to fire safety rules
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

The project, which would have seen 180 new rooms for students built at Gamle Ellebjerg in Copenhagen, was announced earlier this year by the city’s lord mayor Lars Weiss along with the municipality in the Danish capital.

But fire safety regulations mean the number of residencies, which are temporary structures, must be significantly reduced to 40, broadcaster DR reports.

That will have a smaller impact on the city’s longstanding lack of affordable housing for students.

“This is evidence the project was a little bit hasty,” the head of the University of Copenhagen’s student council, Kevin Olesen, told DR.

Weiss told the broadcaster the issue was related to fire safety regulations, with the municipality unable to apply regulations normally used for camping accommodation to the housing, as had been planned.

“It’s a massive shame that it wasn’t possible,” Weiss said.

The municipality said it will aim to have more temporary student accommodation available next year, DR writes.

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BUSINESS

The 14 struggling Danish towns given a break from regulation

Deserted town centres and struggling businesses are common traits in 14 Danish towns which will now be exempted from a number of regulations to give them a better chance of revival.

Published: 6 October 2023 17:03 CEST
The 14 struggling Danish towns given a break from regulation

The 14 towns will be “set free” from certain rules and regulations in a trial scheme aimed at reviving them after years of decline.

The launch of the scheme was announced by the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs on Friday, and means that, for example, towns will be permitted to give extra subsidies to business owners who want to rent currently-empty town centre units.

They will also be allowed to cut down protected forest if it has taken the form of scrub and stops the town from feeling congruous; and to rent out empty commercial premises as housing in town centres.

The towns included in the trial are: Assens, Faaborg, Grindsted, Hornslet, Ikast, Nordborg, Nykøbing Sjælland, Odder, Otterup, Rødekro, Rønne, Sakskøbing, Støvring and Vamdrup, after their applications to the trial scheme were accepted.

A political agreement from 2021 paved the way for the new deregulation scheme the towns will hope to benefit from. The scheme is reported to cost the government 130 million kroner.

“I’m very much looking forward to seeing the result. I hope that this will be a part of what puts more life into the centre of medium-sized Danish towns,” the minister for rural districts Louise Schack Elholm said in a statement.

“This is a number of different initiatives, nine in total, that we are making as legal exemptions,” Elholm said.

Some 32 towns initially applied for the scheme.

“It’s incredibly good to see how many municipalities are interested in getting more life into their town centres. The plan was for 10 towns to be selected but there were so many good projects that we agreed on 14 towns,” she said.

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