£30 million flat plans for Hove to be decided by councillors
180 could be built on the site of a former industrial estate
Brighton and Hove City Council's new cabinet is being asked to agree a plan to spend about £30 million on more than 180 flats at a site in Hove.
The plan, for 300 flats in all, would involve working with the Hyde Group housing association which would take just over 120 of the flats for shared ownership at the northern end of the old Sackville Trading Estate.
If the cabinet approves the plan at its first meeting next week, Hyde is expected to apply to a government agency, Homes England, for a grant towards the cost of the scheme.
The grant would enable Brighton and Hove City Council to keep its share of the costs low enough to charge tenants a “social rent” so that the flats might be truly affordable.
In all, the council and Hyde hope to build 306 flats through their joint venture known as Homes for Brighton and Hove.
Hyde would purchase the site which is next to the Moda complex, in Sackville Road, north of the railway. Moda is nearing completion on a £160 million scheme to build almost 600 flats.
The developer has planning permission to build 260 “extra care” flats to the north but is not now expected to go ahead with those plans.
Instead, Hyde would have to submit a fresh planning application for the new scheme, with the housing association looking to take 123 of the proposed flats while the council would have 183.
Most of the flats would have two bedrooms, with several one-bed flats as part of the mix, while a smaller number would have three bedrooms, according to a report to the cabinet.
The report said: “The council will be responsible for the management of its social rented units and any internal common parts. Hyde will own and manage the shared ownership units and their associated internal common parts.
“Hyde will also retain the freehold interest in the entire block and maintain and manage the exterior, roof, structure and foundations of the building and any external common parts.”
The council would be expected to pay Hyde a proportion of the service charge to cover the management and maintenance costs.
The council would also put up £4.5 million in working capital – half of the £9 million overall requirement. This would be in the form of an interest-free loan to Homes for Brighton and Hove.
The flats for the council to let would be built first and they would be allocated to people on the council’s housing waiting list.
Some 7,500 households are currently on the housing register and almost 1,800 are in emergency and temporary housing.
The council’s joint venture with Hyde was set up with the aim of building at least 1,000 “affordable” homes for low-income working families.
So far, the joint venture has built 346 affordable homes, with 176 of those – more than half – available at social rents at Denman Place, in Coldean, and Clarendon Place, in Portslade.
The 306 flats planned on the Sackville Road site would take the total to 652 – almost two thirds of the way towards the joint venture’s target.
The cabinet is due to reach its decision at a meeting in public at Brighton Town Hall at 2pm on Thursday (June 27th).
The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.