The first three sites have been identified for hundreds of new low-cost homes as part of a joint venture between Brighton and Hove City Council and housing association Hyde.
The sites are in Clarendon Place, Portslade, north of Varley Hall in Coldean Lane, Brighton, and just west of Swanborough Place, in Whitehawk.
All three sites are on land owned by the council which will be sold to the £120 million joint venture on a long lease.
The principles of the deal were agreed almost a year ago after two marathon meetings of the council’s Housing and New Homes Committee.
Now the same committee is being asked to support the sale of the first three plots where hundreds of the 1,000 planned homes are to be built. Other sites will be chosen later.
The scheme is aimed at providing homes for rent or shared ownership for working people who earn a living wage.
Rents would start from £118 a week at today’s prices for a studio flat, rising to £206 for a three-bedroom property.
A final deal on the disposal of the three sites will be taken by the council’s Policy, Resources and Growth Committee on Thursday 12 October.
All three political parties on the council backed the joint venture after long debate over some of the details of the scheme and all ran for office on manifestos promising low-cost housing.
How about the schools that will serve these? Where are they being built?
The homes are intended for people who already live in Brighton & Hove – so their kids will already be in school. In any case planning deals with infrastructure for new developments, so this will be assessed as/when planning applications get submitted. It looks like a good idea to me!
And what about the kids that move into the homes in Brighton & Hove that are vacated by those relocating to these new ‘low-cost’ homes? There’s no guarantee that they’ll all be existing pupils of Brighton & Hove schools!
I thought it was a £104m joint venture so it is already going to cost more.Why could they not have done the same at Kings House instead of letting a Developer make millions?
Good luck to those trying to enter and exit Coldean lane.
Coldean lane has been royally screwed already by Brighton and hove Albion a few more homes in coldean isn’t go in to make the slightest difference
This is excellent news. It’s the exact sort of thing the city needs to attempt to counter the housing shortages and the huge housing costs.
Why don’t the council build their own houses like they used to for council tenets to rent and they will earn money on them for the life and they would be built to a better standard and not the rabbit hutches private builders do to get as many houses in as possible to make as much money not thinking of how people will be living.
I think it’s because central government stopped funding that some years ago.
Excellent news, finally more family homes in and around Coldean. Good to see the rents to be affordable.
So where will the access be? Through Varley Park entrance or a new junction?
I want more details regarding buying.
How about building more social housing in the more leafy and affluent areas of Brighton and Hove as well as areas with high levels of social housing already or is the opposition so great that it is not even considered
I would disagree I don’t think the rent is affordable two hundred odd a week to my thinking is high my reasoning is..if your a couple both working then not too bad but many people are single parents so cought in a poverty trap relying on council benefit.
Are the council not building any homes whatsoever??
Brighton is inundated with students and more and more are coming it is my understanding they don’t pay council tax and landlords get away with it also no wonder the council are owed millions, there seems to be no problem allowcateing land for Studant accomdation there are places going up everywhere in Brighton, Brighton &Hove council need to build houses and flats that people can rent from the council not a joint venture with a housing association
The blurb says for those earning a living wage, I don’t earn that much, so will I not qualify?