Brighton & Hove City Council Draft Housing Strategy

Brighton & Hove City Council have published their draft housing strategy for consultation. You can read and comment on the strategy at Brighton & Hove Housing Strategy. The consultation is open for comments until 19th May 2024.   

If you have concerns about how the draft housing strategy will impact your projects or want tailored advice on commenting on the draft housing strategy, please get in touch.  

As stakeholder engagement specialists, we know it is vital to engage with the council’s proposals and understand the impact this has on our clients.

The draft strategy identifies five key priorities for the Council over the next five years:  

·       Improve housing quality safety and sustainability. 

·       Deliver the homes our city needs. 

·       Prevent homelessness and meet housing need 

·       Support independence and improved health and well-being for all. 

·       Provide resident focused housing services. 

Key facts

·       37,000 students attend the city’s 2 universities 

·       There are more than 4200 Houses in Multiple Occupation in the city 

·       Over 7,600 households on the housing waiting list in December 2023 

·       More than 1,700 households in temporary and emergency accommodation (February

2024) 

·       £16.9m cost of temporary and emergency accommodation in 2022/23 

·       661 additional council homes 2015 to 2023 = 73 per annum 

·       Average private rent is £1,300 per month in Brighton & Hove, £850 for England, £1,050 for South East  

Key points

·       The Council commits to improving the quality of council homes and estates, with no mention of looking for opportunities to build more council homes.  

·       BHCC wants to improve the condition of HMOs through the existing mandatory licensing of larger properties and an additional licensing scheme for smaller properties.  

·       The Council supports the growth in PBSA as it has encouraged a better balance of student housing.  

·       The strategy aims to provide more social and affordable housing either through their own new build programmes, partnership initiatives, developer contributions or registered providers.  

·       The Council will prioritise brown field sites to bring forward new homes for successful delivery.  

·       The Council hopes to use local criteria for access to affordable housing provided through Build to Rent schemes to ensure prioritisation of local people on lower incomes, essential worker roles that are hard to recruit or retain and disabled people.  

·       BHCC commits to using less temporary and emergency accommodation.  

·       The Council commits to ensuring sufficient amenity space is delivered on new housing developments.  

How to engage with this strategy

·       Silverstone can help you make sure your planning proposal follows the core values of the strategy  

·       Silverstone can ensure your planning proposal addresses at least one of the concerns in the strategy, and we illustrate this effectively to stakeholders

·       You should ensure you effectively illustrate the impact of S106 developer contributions on the local community and housing, and Silverstone can assist you with engagement in this area   

You can read and comment on the full draft housing strategy at Brighton & Hove Housing Strategy. The consultation is open for comments until 19th May 2024.   

If you have concerns about how the draft housing strategy will impact your projects or want tailored advice on commenting on the draft housing strategy, please get in touch.