Work is expected to start soon on building hundreds of low-cost homes in Brighton after four years of planning and preparation.
The scheme was described as “the largest single development of 100 per cent affordable housing in the city for a generation.”
The 242 homes in Coldean Lane, Brighton, were given planning permission last week subject to a series of agreements and conditions.
The agreements are due to be signed off by the end of October with construction work on the eight-acre site expected to begin in the new year.
Building work on the six blocks of flats is scheduled to take 18 months to two years, with working families moving in by late 2021 or early 2022 if all goes to plan.
The homes have been designed to be truly affordable to low-wage local working families, with half the flats available to rent by people on the council’s housing waiting list. The rest will be offered for shared ownership.
The scheme was drawn up by the joint venture between Brighton and Hove City Council and Hyde housing association – known as Homes for Brighton and Hove.
The £120 million joint venture was mooted in October 2015 and formally set up as a company two years later.
The main aim is to build at least 1,000 affordable homes over five years as part of Brighton and Hove’s contribution to tackling the national – and local – housing crisis.
Those behind the scheme want to increase not just the housing supply, but the supply of genuinely affordable homes.
Their aim acknowledges how homes classed as “affordable” are often still too expensive for those who most need housing help.
The Coldean Lane scheme is the joint venture’s first project to have been granted planning permission.
A second scheme – for 111 flats in two blocks in Clarendon Place in Portslade – is due to be considered by the council’s Planning Committee in September.
Plans were drawn up for a third site, in Whitehawk, but abandoned after protests. The site was in any event said to have been more complex than initially believed.
Some hope that the joint venture will be chosen to turn part of the Brighton General Hospital site into housing.
The NHS no longer uses all the ageing buildings and wants to concentrate its staff into new more suitable premises on part of the site.
It would fund the new buildings by selling or leasing the rest of the site – probably for housing and possibly to the joint venture.
This might go some way to satisfying campaigners who are opposed to a prominent publicly owned site being turned over to private developers.
The new homes in Coldean will be a mix of one, two and three-bedroom flats in six and seven-storey buildings to make best use of the sloping site. At least half a dozen of the flats will be wheelchair accessible.
The council said that the joint venture had listened to the feedback from people already living in Coldean who had a number of concerns, including about road safety and parking.
It said: “Homes for Brighton and Hove held two rounds of consultation with local residents over the summer of 2018 before finalising the plans.
“Following concerns raised about parking, the designs were amended to increase the number of spaces from 120 to 162. That offers parking for 67 per cent of the homes – 17 per cent more than vehicle ownership studies recommend.
“A car club space has also been added, along with a Brighton Bike Share scheme hub, offering shared transport options that can benefit the wider local community.
“Changes were also made to the road junction plans to include a right-turn filter lane – and two pedestrian crossing islands and 30mph speed signage were added to improve safety in Coldean Lane.
“The height and scale of the blocks and number of homes were reduced to improve the visual impact of the site and allow better views from the South Downs.
“The amount of green space and play space and the number of footpaths were also increased.
“The development will provide more trees and chalk grassland than are currently on the site, offer long-term wildlife management and incorporate large areas of natural habitat.
“An ancient woodland will remain untouched and … will receive ongoing management to improve the health of the trees and help conserve the woodland.
“Fewer trees will be felled than originally planned and they will be replaced with a greater number of new trees.
“In addition, a landscape and ecological management plan provides for the long-term management of habitats, species and other biodiversity features.
“The proposal also offers half a million pounds for parks and gardens, play and indoor sports facilities and more than £200,000 for secondary and sixth form education provision to be spent in the local area.”
Councillor John Allcock, who chairs the council’s Housing and New Homes Committee, said: “We are in a national housing crisis and the city is urgently in need of low-cost homes.
“We know that many people raised in the city can no longer afford to live here and more people than ever are at risk of homelessness.
“Alongside our commitment to speed up the delivery of new rented council homes, Homes for Brighton and Hove is a key part of our plans to increase the supply of genuinely affordable homes in the city.
“This is a clear priority for us and it’s very exciting to see the first proposals from the partnership taking such a significant step forward. It will be the largest single development of 100 per cent affordable housing in the city for a generation.”
Councillor Allcock, who also chairs Homes for Brighton and Hove, added: “Joining forces with Hyde allows us to speed up the delivery of new low-cost homes and look at sites neither of us would be able to do as effectively alone.
“We’ve listened to residents and understand their concerns about both the challenges and the benefits this development will have on the local community.
“The feedback we received helped us improve the scheme in ways that we believe will enhance the existing community and their new neighbours, as well as helping us meet urgent local needs for housing.”
Hyde Group’s managing director for development Tom Shaw said: “Homes for Brighton and Hove is an innovative partnership set up with the sole purpose of building genuinely affordable homes for local people in Brighton and Hove.
“We are delighted to have reached this exciting milestone of securing planning approval for the first homes and look forward to beginning construction shortly.
“There is no single answer to tackling the housing shortage in Brighton and Hove. However, this project will undoubtedly provide a real boost to affordable housing delivery in the city.”
Huge credit to former Council leader Warren Morgan, who worked so hard to make this possible.
Not only are the homes to be affordable and for people with a local connection but being a joint venture, the homes are exempt from Right to But legislation.
As former Chair of Planning, I saw this scheme through from its inception. Sadly, I didn’t get the chance to chair the Committee that approved it. But well done to Tracey Hill for steering it through! And of course all credit must go to Warren Morgan as this was his idea. And he was the first Council Leader to recognise the importance of Planning in delivering homes and jobs for the city. I just hope Nancy Platts continues to support the Planning Service.
Yes Warren Morgan, who said the Council weren’t Developers when I suggested the Council redevelop Kings House and use the profits for Social Housing.I wonder how much costs have gone up in 5 years and how many less properties there will be for the £120m.
Was it your casting vote that scuppered the Hotel at the Amex which would have brought in lots of income for the City,just because ex Cllr Barradell didnt like the colour scheme?
The Chair of Planning is there to lead and facilitate the Planning Committee in applying local and national policy to determine the outcome of planning applications. Not to ‘steer it through’, irrespective of the merits of this particular application. This smacks of pre-determination, and subversion of the planning process and local democracy. Thank goodness the new Planning Committee seems to have regained its teeth, and actually rejected some major applications in Hove, rather than nodding them through. Sadly, this has been too late to stop the overdevelopment already approved in Goldsmid ward and others.
Mmm, lets see how great this approved plan was in say 5-10 yrs and how much it has actually cost the residents of Brighton not only in monetary terms but also in lost green spaces as it will be used as the ‘argument to allow other builds to be approved’.
Affordable housing is needed however, just building high rise flats that blight the landscape is not the answer. Developers will always argue this is the only financially viable way forward although this is based purely on profit margins of course. If you are going to build on this site, which I actually do not agree with, low rise would have been much more in keeping in line with neighbouring Coldean.
I do not have the answers as to how Brighton copes with the increasing demand for housing from local people and increasing number of people wishing to move here for various reasons. I am sure however, that to just continue to build and build upwards is detrimental to the City and its current residents.
(Just an afterthought – how long will it take University to put in application to add additional floors at Varley Halls and arguing not detrimental to area re height of new development.)
I have been trying to get infill building throughout the City instead of taking up green spaces but to no avail.It is possible to build hundreds of units without the need for too much infrastructure and they could be prefabricated off site.
There has been lots of infill building across the city, from derelict garage sites through to those new council houses where the graffiti wall was in the North Laine area.
I am talking about using intersections where they are not really necessary and hopefully some areas will become car free in the future.
flossy as a resident of coldean for 25 years I think we have put up with too many changes to this estate over the years ie }brighton bypass ]amex }varley halls ]HMOS }now you want to dump low-cost housing on our doorstep , enough is enough, we have empty building over Brighton and hove that can be demolished, why do these eyesore flats here near a shool }near coldean lane which is a very very busy road not built for the traffic that will be on it all the time. no proper crossings , goodbye green spaces and hello white hawk and mouscomb.there are a lot of elderly people on this estate and they have had as i have said before enough of this rubbish
I think seeing is believing. Time after time I have watched new develoments meant to be for affodable housing needs for City residents being ‘traded’ back to the developers who churn them out to private investors who inturn rent them out at extorionate prices, pushing the market further from the grasp of the locals who work in the City and contribute the most to the local economy. Its no good putting up new develpments if they aren’t going to the people who need it most, that’s local people and not people living in London and beyond with deep pockets. In recent years Brighton City has seen many new homes either being newly built or renovated and it’s barely dented the housing issue that seems to plaugue us. I have to wonder why that is and it is mainly because they end up in the hands of everyone bar the people they were intended for. Just take a moment to look at recent builds;
Albion Hill development
Preston Road/Springfield Road re-development
Central Park redeveloment
Brighton Station development
Just a few to name that were supposed to be for locals but are mainly all privatly owned and rented.
The other issue is the amount of student housing going up. Universiies seem flush with cash these days, no wonder at the fees they charge for an education. With deeper pockets they’ve been able to increase their student intake and spend mony on buying developments for to house them. London Road area has been completly atken over by students and housing. A double edged sword as it’s brought life back into the rundown area but the balance has tipped to far and is again oushing local residents out of tehir homes as they can no longer afford the rents as landlords give their properties over to HMOs to house them, making far more cash than they could with a family in residence.
Soemthing is very wrong with what’s going on in our City.