A council-owned former office block with planning permission to be turned into 11 flats remains empty two years after the proposed conversion was approved.
The building, 62-63 Old Steine and 3 Palace Place, Brighton, has been empty since last being used as offices in 2017.
But at the weekend, photographs were published on a Facebook page, Urban Rot, suggesting a lack of work inside the semi-derelict building.
In July 2021, Brighton and Hove City Council agreed to spend £2.7 million to convert the buildings into “medium-term” housing for people on the council’s housing register.
The Regency town house, next to the Royal Pavilion grounds, was previously used as council offices and by the charity Team Domenica.
It was earmarked for use as a doctor’s surgery and, as a result, Team Domenica relocatied to its current site at Preston Circus.
The council’s Planning Committee granted permission to convert the building into 11 flats, including a wheelchair-accessible flat on the ground floor.
Housing campaigner Daniel Harris said: “It looks like something is going on with the building but obviously not what was agreed or promised years ago.
“That group (Urban Rot) has got in there and provided amazing pictures of the space and potential of it. It does make me concerned and worried why it was left.
“There is a lot of anti-social behaviour in that area. Having a derelict building makes it worse.
“Bringing these buildings into use will stop anti-social behaviour because there’ll be people living in these spaces. It won’t be derelict.”
Cabinet member for housing and new homes councillor Gill Williams said that the building will be converted for use as council-owned temporary accommodation.
Councillor Williams said: “Providing more housing for people in this city is a priority for this council and this building will offer much-needed additional temporary accommodation.
“Since this proposal was approved, we have been working to clear the building, remove any hazards and secure the relevant permission for converting it.
“A tender process is now complete and we will award the contract for the work shortly.
“We expect work to start very soon and hope to have the new homes completed next year.”
Daniel Harris is right to flag this as a concern. Perhaps now it’ll be boarded up if not already, and measures put in place to minimise it becoming a squat before work’s begun on it. Lovely area, The Royal Pavilion is awesome.
Lovely Area, be nice to have Housing down there-even if Temporary till those are Housed by B&H Council.
The last thing we need is a homeless hostel next to a 24 hr off licence in an area where there is a high level of anti social behaviour and substance abuse. It should be homes for key workers.
If people want a home they should work hard at school and college , GO TO WORK , save some money up for a deposit etc, etc it’s not the government’s job to provide somewhere to live
Not all people can and some won’t .
Affordable housing should be a government’s job, absolutely it should.
The phrase “go out and get a job if you want a house” is so antiquated, and suggests a complete disconnect with the realities of people these days. Consider increasing wage to mortgage ratios, stagnant wage growth that barely covers essentials at the lowest levels, and rents that are some of the highest in the country.
A complete phantasmagoria.
Its not a lot, and tbh I really wanted in-house emergency accommodation so the council could cancel contracts with the slum private providers locally, seeing the pictures inside only makes this more viable, plenty of community rooms so the council could start a new model, facilities and services but save massive income, could get double the occupants with floating support, not everyone is vulnerable and homeless many are through no fault of their own.
It’s a compromise and not sure if a good move financially but socially it really is.
As a local resident also, I live opposite, I’ve seen drug dealing in that alleyway, people pissing all over the place and well it’s literally a hot bed for crime. This is not good for anyone.
Labour yet again on the backfoot; forced to comment, I am certain in recent days things have most certainly moved forward, but my concern is and well done URBAN ROT for this, but it takes unneeded pressure to move things agreed democracy forward.
This will not only strengthen our councils assets but it will bring happiness to so many families and I genuinely believe will save lives. Still too many homeless are dying whilst homeless this is a stain our on amazing city.
I wont say much but the housing lead needs to really get her act together, fight for the real community deprived here.
If you want to reduce pissing in alleyways, I’d suggest that the council didn’t reduce the public lavatories in the first place.
Has the council considered the portable pissoirs that you see in the street in Soho etc on a Friday/Saturday night?
I fully agree, have actually been raising the options of weekend places to piss where people are pissing soho/amsterdam style.
High support hostels are full and are stupidly underfunded leading to low quality staff and absolutely no structure, some staff at places like Phase One, Glenwood Lodge have been there so long, they have just given up, and have no resilience, and no hope of getting people recovery/housing. Even if you get someone to the point of moving on from a high support hostel the support they receive is pitiful, then they get evicted, and the cycle starts again. We have great services for the homeless community in Brighton, but if we are talking about people with complex needs moving on in a positive way, its a different story.
That’ll bring up the tone of the area and attract more tourists.
Another “historical” area of the city turned into a piss stinking dump…
A building of this quality and location should be sold off, converted by an external building company to several high-grade shared freehold flats, and the sale proceeds used to construct multiple houses/flats out of the town centre. Thereby removing the council from future maintenance responsibility (historically bad) and cleaning up a tacky area of the town.