Dozens of people have objected to plans to turn two family homes in the same Portslade street into shared houses.
Leaflets informing neighbours of two planning applications for 47 and 71 Eastbrook Road have been posted through letterboxes, asking people to object.
Both applications to turn the family homes into six-bedroom houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) have been lodged with Brighton and Hove City Council by WSE Property Services.
The leaflet cited high turnover of residents in HMOS and shortages of GP appointments.
One public comment on the plans for 47 Eastbrook Road said: “We are meant to be inviting families back to the area. This will cause absolute chaos.
“Parking is already a nightmare. This will most definitely affect parking more and not to mention trying to squeeze so many people in a tiny space.”
An objection to the plans for 71 Eastbrook Road said: “As a close neighbour, and one who has seen inside the neighbouring houses (with the same footprint), I cannot believe that anyone would even think it would be acceptable to convert this tiny terraced house into a dwelling for six adults (and therefore possibly their six visitors / partners too – so potentially 12 adults coming and going.)
“It is absolute greed and certainly over-development which is totally incongruent with the rest of the terrace and road.
“The neighbour’s houses are occupied by small families with children.
“They own their homes and moved there for a peaceful existence, not to live next to what would be as busy as living next to a block of flats.”
The planning application said: “Since there are no HMOs within the neighbourhood, no cumulative adverse impact that would arise through a concentration of HMOs will be caused to neighbours.
“The HMO for six persons is proposed in place of a dwelling for a family group that would likely accommodate four to five persons.
“The increase in occupancy level would therefore be minor. It is unlikely that a significant or noticeable increase in activity levels over the existing use would occur.
“However, the change in occupation type may result in a slight shift in the behavioural patterns from the house.”
Communal space for the residents of the HMOs would include an open-plan dining and living room, and a communal garden.
Four of the six bedrooms in each house would have en-suite bathrooms, with each bedroom offering space for a bed, wardrobe and desk.
To read more about the plans, visit the planning portal on the council’s website. The reference for 47 Eastbrook Road is BH2024/00555 and the reference for 71 Eastbrook Road is BH2024/00233.
I think a key point to add to this is the developer’s assertion about the increase in occupancy level being minor is completely unsupported by the data. The previous occupancy rate for the property was one adult, and the average for the street is two adults per household.
As such, an increase to six adults or more marks a step-change in usage and occupancy and is markedly different from the rest of the homes on the street. I think it’s important unfounded assertions like these commonly used in planning applications are challenged, so planning officers have the necessary data when making their decisions.
Eastbrook Road is quite a journey by public transport to our excellent universities. I don’t think it will be terribly attractive to students.
Eastbrook road is quite a journey by public transport to our excellent universities. I doubt it will be terribly attractive to students.
Bonkers to think how anyone in their right mind could think turning these TINY two up and two down houses into a 6-bed HMO is viable. Aside from the fact it’s a very quiet family residential area, these properties are not built to sustain this many people. I get why the properties in Hanover are popular because they are 10x bigger than these ones. Clearly profile before brains. This developer in Hove should offer their house and see if that’s OK with them.
This is not the right place for this sort of accommodation.
The houses are very close together…sound travels with many people in the house.
Unsure if any car space is available….
These are family homes..many families are still here. Overcrowding – 6 adults in one home that are not family so will be entertaining their own family/friends. Totally unsuitable for this area of terraced houses.
I object to this proposal.
Object on the council website where it matters
I feel for the poor souls either side. People in these dwellings tend not to keep the same hours as the rest of us.
A lot of HMOs in Brighton house homeless people; those tend to be the dwellings you’re referring to!
Totally against this, such a waste.
Keep the street as it is!
It’s all about return on investment, nothing to do with giving people a nice place to call home. HMO is just a modern word for slum. It should be illegal to convert a perfectly fine family home into a HMO. The locals are correct, 6 people + partners = significantly busier than a normal 3 bed house.
Ensuite= 1 metre square shower and $hitter. Lush
Its shameful 🙁 so many properties are now HMO that there is nowhere affordable for families to live 🙁 they should cap HMO properties in B&H , its getting ridiculous. They built multiple student accommodation halls along lewes road, place them there!!
I read recently that Brighton is THE most expensive place to live in England.
More fleecing of students, paying £800 a month for a squalid room of minimal size.
Don’t blame students, they are just kids trying to find a way forward in this broken and rapidly failing country.
I honestly don’t know why the boats keep coming here. Who’d aspire to living in the UK in 2024? Poverty, homelessness, lawlessness, drugs, guns, gangs, unaffordable housing, unaffordable food, unaffordable energy, and the sea is now just a sewer.
It’s time to leave here, any way possible.
Is this why people were blocking the streets yesterday win bins?
No-one likes HMOs being developed in their area. It’s up there as one of the top objections as a NIMBY along with bin areas and AirBnB properties. HMOs have excellent occupation rates too, so it’s a question of demand and supply.
What this does highlight to me is how producing more housing stock is so important. The figures have improved over the last couple of years in particular, and there’s still more work to do. Brighton, in particular, has an awful ratio between a household’s income and the cost of homes (rent or mortgage). And realistically, that needs to come from the central government. I can’t wait to see that shambling corpse of an administration switch hands at the General Election.
HMOs house some of the poorest people in society who cannot afford to rent self contained accommodation. But they are demonised. Very narrow minded
As others have suggested, this is simply indicative of the housing situation in the country. I am in my mid-30s and live a settled lifestyle but cannot afford anything other than an HMO. It is not what I want, but I have no choice. More HMOs means slightly more choice for us on the market, and potentially prices coming down.
The only thing that will resolve people’s discomfort in sharing a road with HMOs is mass home building, all across the country, at a scale of hundreds of thousands of homes a year.
Without this, opposition to HMOs is just making life even more miserable people like me.
HMO will bring home owners house prices down and make street less desirable area for starter families as HMO are temporary accommodation and will diminish the community
There is so much hostility toward people who live in HMOs. I live in an HMO in West Hove. I did not have a typical life where I worked consistently, saved, made a family and bought a house. I travelled a lot and had various exciting careers, and am now single, and am caring part time for my elderly mother. I live with four others, who also had unique life experiences making it a necessity to share accommodation. One of us worked abroad for years and is saving for a deposit, one of us changed careers at 30 and got divorced, one works for low wage, and one has just returned from a decade overseas. We aren’t anti-social, we don’t party or make loads of noise – we put the recycling out just like everyone else. The tenancy agreement states single occupancy only and I’ve only seen partners on the odd weekend. If I had a family and kids, I think I’d want my kids to grow up on a diverse street where not everyone has the same life experiences.