Where to get help for son starting Uni

400ixl

Manchester has a couple of halls in the £113-120 range but are shared bathroom. Cheapest en-suite is £172 but plenty of them at that price. They do 41 week contracts at Manchester by the looks of it.

So a bit more than Nottingham, but nowhere near the cost in the OP's post.

theoretica

A good starting place, if you haven't found it already, is right here on MSE https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/students/  This includes a calculation to show what parental contribution would put your child on an equal footing with someone getting the maximum level of loan.