£6,000 a year for a room? If I were a student, I’d probably go on strike too | Patrick Collinson

Rents paid by university students have been rising by about double the rate of inflation for years

• University – you know the fees, but what about the costs?
• Super deluxe student accommodation for wealthy parents

When did it become acceptable to treat university students as a cash cow, milked for absurd rents that bear little relation to the underlying cost of the accommodation?

Rents charged to first-year students have risen at around double the rate of inflation year after year. The hundreds of thousands of fresh undergraduates heading into halls this September can expect to pay well over £6,000 for even basic single rooms. At the start of this decade, the typical student rent was equal to just over half the maximum available cash they could obtain in loans and grants. Today that has soared to 73%, and it continues to rise.

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How to build a climate-proof home that never floods

The Netherlands has found an ingenious way to combat rising water – build housing that does the same

Could climate change-resistant homes help solve the housing crisis? The Met Office’s conclusion was unequivocal. There is “no doubt” climate change played a role in the record-breaking temperatures that fried the UK and northern Europe last month.

But there was an irony in this year’s latest heatwave too. The scorching heat that sparked fears of buckled train tracks and made many of us yearn for rain was a symptom of a gradual shift that isn’t just raising temperatures but is making flooding more likely too.

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A guide to dealing with bats in the attic Nottingham Estate Agents

Have you discovered a family of bats living in a house you want to buy? Estate agent Hennings Moir talks us through the implications of living with these uninvited guests Bats are an endangered species and are protected by law, which means it is a criminal offence to try to kill or remove bats or […]

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Sajid Javid refuses to rule out stamp duty reversal so seller pays

‘I’m a low-tax guy’ says chancellor as he reveals he is considering policy changes

The chancellor has refused to rule out reversing stamp duty so it is paid by the seller, rather than the buyer.

In an interview with the Times, Sajid Javid indicated he was willing to consider the policy, which was said to have been favoured by Boris Johnson during the Tory leadership campaign, among others.

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Let’s move to Helmsley, North Yorkshire: super sweet and picture perfect

The town is straight off a box of fudge, all honeyed stone and pansies waving from prize-winning baskets

What’s going for it? Helmsley’s so sweet I can feel the cavities forming in my teeth from 10 miles away. The town is straight off a box of fudge, all honeyed stone and pansies waving from prize-winning hanging baskets. Utterly delicious, with its Norman castle, Palladian pile, secret garden and streets of rigorously renovated and scrupulously scrubbed 18th-century cottages. Just not very good for the waistline. Imagine living here: you’d need a will of iron, blinkers or a StairMaster tethered to your shins to cope with the tea shops and bakers, delis and grocers, selling sucrose in various forms: pickles, preserves, jams, chutneys, chocs, fudge, treacle, Yorkshire curd tarts, mint choc chips... To survive, work it all off in the open air pool – don’t worry, it’s heated. Or look beneath the packaging and see the earthier market town it was, and sometimes still is. Market day, Friday mornings, perhaps, when the tarpaulined stalls are hugger-mugger. Or on a Sunday afternoon in summer, when the leavening presence of leathered bikers congregate with coach parties in Market Place, pausing for a pint en route to Scarborough. Some of the best charity shops in the north, according to resident Simon Read – a virtue of an ageing population.

The case against Too sweet, too Tory, too touristy for some.

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Let’s move to Helmsley, North Yorkshire: super sweet and picture perfect

The town is straight off a box of fudge, all honeyed stone and pansies waving from prize-winning baskets

What’s going for it? Helmsley’s so sweet I can feel the cavities forming in my teeth from 10 miles away. The town is straight off a box of fudge, all honeyed stone and pansies waving from prize-winning hanging baskets. Utterly delicious, with its Norman castle, Palladian pile, secret garden and streets of rigorously renovated and scrupulously scrubbed 18th-century cottages. Just not very good for the waistline. Imagine living here: you’d need a will of iron, blinkers or a StairMaster tethered to your shins to cope with the tea shops and bakers, delis and grocers, selling sucrose in various forms: pickles, preserves, jams, chutneys, chocs, fudge, treacle, Yorkshire curd tarts, mint choc chips... To survive, work it all off in the open air pool – don’t worry, it’s heated. Or look beneath the packaging and see the earthier market town it was, and sometimes still is. Market day, Friday mornings, perhaps, when the tarpaulined stalls are hugger-mugger. Or on a Sunday afternoon in summer, when the leavening presence of leathered bikers congregate with coach parties in Market Place, pausing for a pint en route to Scarborough. Some of the best charity shops in the north, according to resident Simon Read – a virtue of an ageing population.

The case against Too sweet, too Tory, too touristy for some.

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How do I keep my fresh herbs in mint condition? | Kitchen Aide

How can I stop coriander and parsley from wilting and turning to mush?

• Do you have a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com

Please explain how to keep coriander and parsley fresh. I buy them in pristine condition and they start to wilt in a day or two in the fridge. I’ve tried putting them in a glass of water, but that creates a sludge at the base of the stalks. Not attractive.
Adil, London

The road to lovely leaves starts with what you’re buying, Adil; it all hinges on how long ago that coriander or parsley was cut before it took up residence in your kitchen. If you’re buying them from a supermarket, you just aren’t going to know.

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