A four-storey block of student digs could be built in place of a house and a janitorial supplies business in Brighton.
A London-based multinational property company, Valore Group, has applied to Brighton and Hove City Council to build a block of 30 student rooms at 95-97 Hollingdean Road.
The company’s planning application said that the existing site, which used to house Southern Counties Janitorial Supplies, was not suited to “modern business needs”.
The proposed new building would be a mix of studios and “cluster units” with five bedrooms sharing a kitchen and common area. There would also be a large ground-floor common area.
Hollingdean Road was identified as an area suited to student housing, being close to the “academic corridor” in Lewes Road, close to the Sussex University and Brighton University campuses.
Before Valore submitted its planning application, the company contacted homes and businesses along Hollingdean Road, Brighton University and other student housing providers and received no objections to the proposals.
The proposed scheme would be car-free, with 33 cycle parking spaces provided.
The application said: “The proposed development is sustainably located within walking distance of local universities and shops, as well as benefiting from excellent access to sustainable modes of transport.
“The design of the development has been subject to pre-application advice from the council’s planning and urban design officers and offers a high-quality new development that will contribute towards the council’s wider housing needs.”
The proposed new building is almost opposite Hollingbury House, a six-storey student housing scheme.
Further down the road on the same side is another student housing scheme, Holden Court. The owner, CKC Properties, has a planning appeal under way. It wants to turn the premises into co-living homes for young professionals.
To view the application, search for BH2026/01426 on the council’s website.
It should be rejected – The Uni’s have already stated they have a surplus of accommodation. This is just another way of sneaking in sub standard accommodation, that in the near future will be repurposed into large HMO’s for people.
As it states in the article CKC Properties Ltd are unable to fill the student building already on Hollingdean Road so why should this proposed development be granted permission? It’s time Brighton council “Grew a pair” and rejected these attempts to saturate the area with unwanted student blocks and concentrate on attracting the building of homes for local residents
Homes for local residents first – the people who grew up in Brighton, who have family here, who pay council rates
Agreed, the company must be aware of the existing appeal so the proposal seems odd. How about housing for the elderly so they could downsize which could release properties for families.
Im with you on that, but not many Elderly like to downsize, though I think the Law is changing within Tenancy agreements etc.when dependent children move out, if known to council then should downsize.
Plus there are 15 or more over 50’s or 55’s warden assitant living schemes-but not many like to downsize to them either.
Could be because it’s difficult to sell them on and if you can it will be at a big loss .
Surely BHCc should see this and refuse.
Only if there are reasonable grounds to refuse, based on planning law.
Aren’t there enough Students places now within the City.
They should be let to council for single people ( studios or 1 bed)
Even the new build being built in Moulsecoomb are 2,3 & 4 Beds.
All for Families, need to support those that can’t get on the housing list even if born here, but can’t save for a deposit yet private rent takes up all there wage.
Something wrong here, with a blatant amount of empty student flats and no requests for more empties then there is another agenda in place, where is the funding coming from ??? who benefits from building more empties ??
I’m with you on this one, it seems weird when there’s an excess and seemingly no influx foreseen?
I’m against this, simply because they should be doing the whole block and not leaving the rest of the mess there. Doesn’t make sense to develop such a small plot at all and leave the mess
A lot of odd comments on here suggesting “they should beyond this or that”, betraying a lack of knowledge about how our post Thatcher capitalism works. It’s a private plot of land in which a company sees investment opportunity. You might not but they clearly see students filling it. If you don’t like it , campaign for a system in which local authorities have more authority over zoning and land use, similar to France and Germany.
Local Government has plenty of authority to correct issues like this one if there is an actual problem, yet student empty flats are being built ?? maybe if council published WHY then the common man would understand.
Sussex and Brighton universities have plummeted down the ratings so much so that they are having problems attracting the thickest of entrants, hence the oversupply of properties.
Univesities in general,, foreign student numbers fell because bringing several family members WITH RIGHTS was stopped, that alone is the cause of immigration numbers falling while Government pretends they are “taking action” against illegal immigration. Universities made a lot of money not by educating Brits but by selling places to foreign students with family members. Also 1 reason why student empties appear in large numbers.
Holden Court caused so much disruption along Hollingdean Road for years after the council approved it. Once completed they’ve never been able to fill the building charging extortionate rents for students. And now, they’ve realised they can’t make a profit and students are picking alternative and cheaper halls. The owners/developers of Holden Court want to change who they can house in there. After selling the original project as a wonderful investment only for it to flop. There is so much university hall like accommodation all over the area and city already. Which they struggle to fill year on year because less youngsters are going to university.
We have a huge housing crisis in the city. If we can find space for student accommodation then surely those spaces can be used for council or affordable housing for the thousands of households waiting years on the housing list to live somewhere affordable.
If the council approve this, It will be a big mistake. Just look at Holden Court.
The council need to put their foot down and say. Unless you developers are building long term housing solutions for the many households on the wait list. Then we aren’t even going to consider your application.
Students don’t even pay council tax yet seem to have many choices across the city when they come to study here of where they’d like to live.
But these developers and the council need to make sure they are collaborating as one and only building accommodation that can be occupied by many- more specifically the thousands of households on the housing register, not the few…
Housing crisis caused by students living in family houses, the only way to stop that is to built student flats. Stop bleating because no local or normal adult would live on this road.
That;s not how planning works
If the council refuses this without good planning reasons then the applicant will appeal to the planning inspectorate.
I don’t disagree about building for the long term but developers rarely build for the long term and councils can’t force them to.
Brighton seems to have more students than residents judging by all of these applications.
Are they mad? The student market is tumbling and the vast majority now live on campus for their entire university careers so they can spend all their money there. This will be a pig in a poke if built. Do not ruin Hollingdean Road with this rubbish. A stone’s throw from another new student development which cannot give its rooms away!
Reduce HMOs, stop anymore applications for them, students into student blocks,, housing HMOs returned as normal housing, no students, what’s to lose ?? More housing becomes available as students head for their rightful pre-built homes, families get a chance at normal homes, why isn’t local government pushing this instead of some dead end agenda ???
Just what we need more student accommodation and no decent family homes where families keep getting shoved in flats the planning in this city went wrong so many years ago with the councils trying to be a mini london. Swindon is a huge town and they build tons of houses so people have somewhere decent to live instead of blocks of flats left right and centre
I wonder if they are for newly arrived persons from Dover, Brighton being leftie and tolerant.
So glad we moved.
Once build. It will likely be sold by the company to SERCO, buying on behalf of the Home Office, the planning designation them means nothing to the government, as we have seen, it will then by used as a HMO to house those currently in migrant Hotels, as home office contractors are actively favouring places like Brighton, Oxford etc, as it’s hypocritical for these self proclaimed sanctuary cities. economic migrants welcome to complain when the reality hits home
And with the economic migrants comes Government money, lots of it.
My father was an “economic migrant.” He was hounded out of his land of birth purely because of his religious beliefs. Economic migrants come to work. Asylum-seekers come to escape persecution. I was glad he managed to establish roots here but he experienced racism and ridicule and bias in his employment. I am glad that people in this great nation welcome displaced migrants and genuine refugees.