An application to designate New England House an “asset of community value” (ACV) is under consideration, a former tenant has been told.
The Labour deputy leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, Jacob Taylor, said that a decision on whether the application met the statutory criteria rested with the head of planning.
The council has eight weeks to reach its decision and Councillor Taylor said that he would be pleased if the application was successful.
He shared the news with former Wired Sussex director Jenni Lloyd when the council’s cabinet met at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Thursday 16 July).
But she said that a report to the cabinet about the landmark building had failed to mention the ACV application which was submitted in May.
Ms Lloyd was speaking on behalf of the Friends of New England House and asked what consideration had been given to the creative community’s energy and expertise for a potential community-led redevelopment of the building.
The report to the cabinet said that a retrofit or a demolition and rebuild could cost up to £97 million.
Councillor Taylor, the council’s cabinet member for finance and regeneration, said that what had happened with New England House was a “disaster”.
The eight-storey building, in New England Street, housed numerous small creative and digital businesses until it was closed over the past year after a fire report spelt out “intolerable” safety risks that would cost an estimated £26 million to fix.
If the application to designate the building an asset of community value is approved, the Friends of New England House would have a year to make the first offer for the property.
Councillor Taylor said: “If that were to be granted, I would be very pleased and very happy to work with the group.
“If that would be an outcome we could get to, ie, that kind of community body acquiring the site, that may well be a very good outcome for the city so I absolutely commit to working towards doing that.”
Former Wired Sussex chair Alex Morrison asked what happened to a £4.9 million government grant awarded as part of the City Deal in 2014.
The grant was intended to go towards a £24.5 million project, which never happened, to renovate New England House, with £9.8 million each from the private sector and the council.
Councillor Taylor said that the refurbishment project budget had been reallocated to cover costs related to safety, the closure and compensation for the businesses forced to move out of the building.
New England House was also home to a 5G testbed and linked to a three-mile fibre-optic network known as the Greater Brighton Research and Innovation Fibre Ring to boost broadband speeds and capacity.
I know this came up as a question during the council meeting, but to clarify as someone who holds an ACV at the moment, an ACV starts a six-month moratorium period. This means if the application to designate the building an asset of community value is approved, the Friends of New England House would have six months, not a year, to make the first offer for the property.
This right comes from the Community Right to Bid under the Localism Act 2011 (Sections 87–108) and the Assets of Community Value (England) Regulations 2012.