Funding boost for new council homes
A council bid for £819,000 of Government funding towards the cost of building more council homes in Brighton & Hove has been successful.
A housing development already underway in Kensington Street in the North Laine will benefit from money from the Land Release Fund, along with new schemes planned for Selsfield Drive, Moulsecoomb, and Victoria Road, Portslade.
All three projects are part of the council’s New Homes for Neighbourhoods programme, which is building much needed new council housing across the city.
The successful bid is made up as follows:
- £144,000 towards Kensington Street where work started this month on nine council flats and three houses. (The image with this story shows how the new homes will look.)
- £335,000 towards Selsfield Drive where 30 homes are planned on the site of a former housing office. The money will be used to divert a public sewer and make electricity substation and highways improvements.
- £340,000 for Victoria Road where plans are being drawn up for new homes on the site of former council offices.
A total of 131 new council homes will be completed in Brighton & Hove during the current financial year (2017/18) – 57 flats at Kite Place in Whitehawk, 29 flats at Hobby Place in Whitehawk, and 45 flats at Brooke Mead Extra Care scheme in Albion Street, Brighton.
Councillor Anne Meadows, chair of the council’s Housing & New Homes committee, said: “Building more council homes is a priority for the council. Many of the areas we are developing are small, constrained sites, and this funding helps to offset the higher costs associated with building on them.”