Two new apartment blocks in Birmingham city centre capable of accommodating a total of 802 students have been given the go-ahead.

Planning committee members approved a 17-storey and eight-storey block in Bagot Street, near Aston University, and a seven-storey building on the site of a former petrol station in Edward Street, near the ICC.

These two schemes will go some way ­toward solving an acute shortage of bed-spaces for students in Birmingham. There is only enough purpose-built ­accommodation in the city centre for about a third of the 49,000 full time students at the city’s universities and colleges.

But the high-rise blocks did not please Tory councillor Geoff Sutton, who is campaigning for more family houses to be built.

Coun Sutton (Con Kings Norton) said: “We desperately need three and four bedroom houses in this city, not 802 single beds.”

But Coun Keith Linnecor (Lab Oscott) said: “The students who come to Birmingham from across the country bring a lot of money to this city.”