Leeds City Council Confirms £15m Funding for Two Cultural Projects 

Sadie Kendall on 17 February 2025

Leeds City Council have today confirmed plans for two new cultural projects, funded by £15m from central government funding. 

Of the £15m, £10m is being provided by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to turn Holbeck’s historic Temple Works building into the home of a new British Library North.

The Deputy Prime minister, Angela Rayner, visited the Temple Works building alongside mayor Tracey Brabin last week. 

A further £5m has been confirmed will aid plans to create a National Poetry Centre at the landmark Trinity St David’s Church on Woodhouse Lane.

In a statement from Leeds City Council, Councillor James Lewis, leader of Leeds City Council, said:

“The British Library North project aims to create a world-class space for learning, research, exhibitions and events that would unlock the huge potential of Temple Works and boost the ongoing regeneration of the wider Holbeck and South Bank areas.

“It is therefore really welcome news that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has confirmed that, following a consultation, this £10m of funding is now in place to support the process of bringing the Temple Works building into public ownership and back into use.

“We have worked hard in recent months with partners, including the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, Homes England and the British Library itself, to make the case for this funding”

However, the announcement of new funding sits with a broader context of spending cuts from Leeds City Council, with the 2025/26 budget detailing the need to save £103.8m overall across the city. 

Leeds City Council have also detailed they need to make £273.7m in further savings over the next five financial years.

In a previous statement, Councillor James Lewis welcomed new funding for the city, but also detailed the “significant ongoing challenges” in delivering the savings required. 

The 2025/26 budget plans for the city include plans to close Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall, job cuts, and council tax increases. Plans have also been announced that Leeds’ Child Bereavement Support Service is set to cease at the end of February as part of Council budget cuts. 

The financial pressures on the council have been cited as a result of significantly increased costs to provide services and rising demand, especially in social care for vulnerable children and adults.

Leeds student letting agents rebranding to ‘run away from bad reviews’

Sadie Kendall on 20 February 2024

Student letting agencies are rebranding and changing company names to make it more difficult to find reviews from previous tenants, according to some students.

While the practice is not illegal, it has been suggested agents use this method to intentionally escape negative reputations and reviews. 

Letting agency Let It Bee (managed by RNL) located on Headingley Lane, has recently received a wealth of one-star Google reviews suggesting they are agency Red Door Lets under a new name.

One review details: “Let It Bee is just a recently rebranded Red Door Lets, probably because RDL has a horrible reputation among its former tenants”, another stating: ‘they switched name to escape their toxic PR. No evidence that the business practices have changed as yet’. 

Red Door Lets (managed by RNL) performed poorly on the service Rateyourlandlord.com, with a rating of 2.4/5 and was named ‘Worst Letting Agent of the Year’ in 2021 by union ACORN Leeds.

Let It Bee’s website states ‘We are a brand new letting agency but our team has over 25 years of experience renting properties to Leeds students and professionals’.

However, Let it Bee operates from the address previously used by Red Door Lets, with many of the same staff, making it difficult to escape the conclusion they are the same company.

One student who recently signed for a house with Let it Bee, for a tenancy beginning July 2024: ‘I would never have signed with them if I’d known who they really were’. 

The Gryphon could not find Let it Bee as a registered company on the government directory. We contacted Let it Bee for comment but they replied saying they do not assist on “university projects”.

Issues around reputation also appear for the sister company of Red Door Lets, RNL property management.

Director of RNL, Rodric Aitkens, was previously the subject of media scrutiny in 2007 after being taken to court by hundreds of Leeds students and forced to return thousands of pounds in unpaid deposits under the company name Leeds Student Homes. Following these events Leeds Student Home quickly became YourStudentHome.com, showing the historic use of the practice. 

Yet, the practice is not specific to Red Door Lets. In 2020 Lets Leeds rebranded to HOP (House of Property) and more recently Hancock and Bentley to Cobourg Living, among many others.

Some are more transparent about the change, as the government page for Cobourg Living states the name change in 2023. 

Matthew Boulton, director of Get My Deposit Back, offers free advice to student tenants for issues with tenancies and unfair deposit deductions.

He encourages students to use a range of channels to locate feedback and experiences of previous tenants such as Unipol’s Rate Your Landlord and Marks Out of Tenancy, checking letting agent redress schemes, searching the name of the agency owner and using Facebook groups such as Leeds Student Group.

However, signing with a seemingly reputable and fair letting agency does not always eliminate the risk of issues arising.

Most importantly, Matthew emphasises students should ‘know their rights’ to counteract the ‘power imbalance’ in the relationship between students and letting agents and landlords: ‘If every student went into the rental market knowing their rights, it would make a huge difference’.

He also encourages students to take as many pictures as possible at the beginning and end of their tenancy and reach out for help early if issues arise.

In one case, Get My Deposit Back were able to help a 7-bed student house in Leeds get their total £2,000 deposit back after an agent tried to withhold the deposit, despite the house being in a ‘horrendous state’ when they moved in. By rejecting the deductions and being ready to escalate the issue to the deposit protection scheme the tenants were able to receive their entire deposit back.

Unipol told The Gryphon that they would recommend searching by house using the Rate Your Landlord service, which then would allow students to access reviews of a specific house regardless of the landlord or agency.

For advice and information about renting and renters rights, both Unipol and Get My Deposit Back can provide support.