Selling off council property is expected to generate £30 million towards projects over the next four years, councillors were told yesterday (Monday 19 May).
The Labour deputy leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Jacob Taylor, revealed the four-year plan at a special meeting of the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee at Hove Town Hall.
Councillor Taylor answered questions about the council’s capital assets strategy after a “call in” by councillors including Jackie O’Quinn who called for transparency on the sale of any properties or other assets.
The council has already said that it was looking to sell four properties including the old Homewood College site, in Queensdown School Road, Brighton, after the school closed last November.
The other three were an old school caretaker’s house, in Hangleton Way, Hove, an empty office, in Shenfield Way, Hollingdean, and a vacant cottage, in Stanmer Village.
Councillor O’Quinn said: “Consultation with a range of stakeholders is critical in cases such as Homewood where it would be appropriate for ward councillors to be consulted as it’s an important site in their ward.
“It must be established that disposal of an asset is in the best interests of the city and that all checks and balances have been truly carried out.”
Councillor Taylor, the cabinet member for finance and city regeneration, said that the council was in a precarious financial position if something were to go wrong.
He said that Brighto and Hove had the fifth or sixth lowest level of reserves out of 62 unitary authorities.
He said: “We have to be clear about the consequences if we do not get capital receipts: more cuts to our general revenue budget.
“If we are not able to use capital receipts for modernisation and funding the capital programme, there will be more reductions to front-line services that residents rely on.
“Take your pick – whether it’s nurseries, toilets, paddling pools, provision in social care, etc. Those are the consequences. We’re very keen as an administration not to do that.”
Councillor Taylor also said that Brighton and Hove was not hitting its new-build housing targets because of limited space.
He said that the result was one of the most severe housing crises in the country, with a need for family homes, properties for first-time buyers and homes for lower rents.
As a result of the problems, people were living in shared housing “way beyond what happened 30 years ago”.
He also said that the shortage of affordable family housing was linked to the falling number of children in Brighton and Hove state schools, resulting in two primaries closing last year.
Councillor Taylor said: “There are thousands on the waiting list and many thousands of families presenting as homeless. The most extreme sign of the housing crisis is street sleepers.
“One of the reasons we have the housing crisis is that we haven’t built enough houses in this city. We never meet our annual targets for house-building. Part of that is the availability of land and the cost of land.”
He said that the council had to prove that social housing schemes were financially viable and would cover their costs or risk facing an overspend warning known as a “section 114 notice”.
Green councillor Ollie Sykes, who was involved with the call-in request, asked about the proposal to put receipts totalling £20 million towards the council’s “transformation fund”.
Councillor Sykes said: “I wonder if in the process of deciding on proposals whether some form of modelling or assessment is done?
“What are the implications of an increase in the valuation of this asset in the future? Or is it a question of we need £6 million – let’s just flog all that stuff over there.”
He said that 50 families a week were approaching the council for housing support and asked how that affected calculations on viability for using land for social or council housing, rather than “affordable” or market housing.
Councillor Taylor said that the transformation fund was part of the budget and the money needed to be found for it from general spending if the planned sources did not come through.
He said that the housing department was looking at some of the homes – and Homewood was being considered as a potential location for tenants at New England House.
A co-opted member of the committee, Mark Strong, asked if a covenant could be put on residential sales to ensure that they were not used as short-term lets or for a “claw-back” if they were later sold on for an excess profit.
Councillor Taylor said that covenants and claw-backs could be possible.
The committee agreed not to challenge the decision any further.
The council owns lots of buildings and land across the city. Why is it deciding to sell these items rather than others? I agree that we need more transparency about which assets we want to keep and what we want to sell
You could argue that we should leave it all to the council. After all they should know best. However, we have seen terrible investment decisions such as the i360. More recently the sale of a group of parking spaces that sold for far below the price of selling them individually.
Council staff and most council officers are not experts in business. Yet here they are making multi-million pound decisions. More scrutiny and consultation is therefore vital
Thinking of the housing sector alone, according to Brighton & Hove News there are 861 homes in the city have been empty between one and five years, 56 homes between five and ten years and eight homes empty for more than ten years. This is a mixture of private and public housing. There are 3,500 air B&B properties as at September 2024. And finally, according to another B&H News article, 54% of homes in Brighton and Hove are under-occupied. So do we have a housing crisis, or do we have a housing stock management crisis?
I know of a Council property, where the elderly tenant has been in a home for well over a year. After all this time, they’re unlikely to return home, they have Alzheimer’s. It not The Council’s fault, I think it’s being dealt with The Court of Protection.
Absolutely Anne, a delay of 12–18 months is not uncommon in these situations, particularly if there’s a question around deputyship, or if no one steps forward for it, it can be legally quite complicated.
It’s a really potent question, Justin. There are 4,571 active listings as of today, according to AirDNA. I believe we’re still in a housing crisis, but it’s compounded by underoccupancy too. The difficulty with tackling that is how hidden it is; largely relying on resident reporting and the occasional tenancy review (which, in my view, happens far too rarely).
Nationally, I also think we need to introduce a conditional pause on the Right to Buy scheme. For instance, when the waiting list exceeds 1% of the city’s population. Otherwise, we risk a Sisyphus scenario: constantly trying to reduce the list while homes are being sold off, undermining the very effort to house those in need.
The population is growing too quickly and unsustainably. Why and why is the population growing so quickly? Look it up and smell the coffee!
In fact, birth rates are at record lows, and most growth is modest or linked to work and study needs. The real issue is the mismatch between housing supply and demand.
You overlooked the net migration numbers. The UK’s population is on track to reach 70 million this year, growing faster than housing construction can match. Can you afford a house? I can’t, yet I’m taxed to high heaven. England has surpassed the Netherlands as Europe’s most densely populated region and is growing at one of the highest rates. Yes birth rates are very low, but immigration is huge. In Brighton, we’ve run out of building space except for green areas, nature reserves, and spots along A roads. Labour seems clueless. We need to focus on managing with the population we have, getting on and curb incoming numbers. However Starmer talks about avoiding an “island of strangers” (or was that Enoch Powell?), but he hasn’t withdrawn from the ECHR, permits hundreds of thousands to enter, and, while in opposition opposed all curbs.
A good opportunity to clarify a few things.
You’re absolutely right that net migration is a significant factor in population growth. However, it’s worth situating that in context. The ONS projects that two-thirds of the UK’s population growth between 2020 and 2030 will come from net migration, but most of that migration is driven by work, study, and family reunification, not tourism or short-term lets. In fact, many migrants fill vital roles in our public services, including the NHS and care sector, which are already stretched due to staff shortages.
The UK does have one of the highest population densities in Europe, but the headline figures obscure important regional disparities. Brighton is under particular housing pressure, yes, but this is not solely or even primarily caused by migration. One of the most distorting factors is the rise in second homes and whole-property STLs; properties that are permanently removed from the housing market and used year-round for tourism.
You’re right that many people can’t afford a home, but it’s misleading to tie this to migration alone. The Council’s own scrutiny report shows that between 2,000 and 6,000 properties in Brighton are STLs, but only 443 pay business rates. That’s a huge drain on housing availability and local tax revenue. Migrants didn’t create that loophole; a lack of regulation did.
Flogging off the family silver. What short termism
I looked at buying an empty council owned building that had been split into two flats. These had not been used for many years, possibly decades and yet the building had, probably, quite recently been re-roofed and was subject of security patrols.
Is this the family silver? No it is a waste of an asset that could easiily be brought back into use. Yet the council, have wasted money with no clear strategy of what to do with the property.
Councillor Taylor has other options – the Labour Government could highlight the impact of conservative government cuts to council budgets over a 14 year period and the impact of his own Labour government’s continued austerity drive.
He says ““We have to be clear about the consequences if we do not get capital receipts: more cuts to our general revenue budget.” but that just doesn’t ring true, it’s unbelievable that Labour councillors are being complicit in a cuts agenda and doing nothing to call out politicians in Westminster. Red Tories.
*typo – that should have read Labour councillors in Brighton in first line – whoops!
Can’t believe the Council are selling off The Caretakers Bungalow in Hangleton that the Caretaker used to get when they got the role at West Blatchington School-not the Property in Stamner Park-like they did in East Brighton ( massive house that’s into 2 flats right now-could stay like that or back into a House)
They will be selling off Hove Park Nevill Campus soon aswell as St Joesph School.
All this about Housing etc-where else is there to Build more so these Families can get a Family Home they have waited Years for.
“Councillor Taylor also said that Brighton and Hove was not hitting its new-build housing targets because of limited space”
Maybe stop building student accomodations and selling of the land
Well said,I wonder has there been a cost benefit analysis on the number of the student accommodation .
More short termism and selling the family silver from a council who seem incapable of preventing money haemorrhage on all the wrong things which no one voted for. Or considering the future income and prosperity of the city. We badly need politics gone from running this city.