Brighton affordable housing scheme scrapped over finance fears

Plans to build more than 200 affordable homes in an outlying district of Brighton have been scrapped following concerns about the scheme not being financially viable.

Due to be developed by Homes for Brighton & Hove, a joint venture between Brighton and Hove council and the Hyde Group, the project was going to be built near Whitehawk, a district to the east of the south-coast city.

But it was binned at a meeting of the Homes for Brighton & Hove board earlier this week.

The council said: “The decision was taken at a Homes for Brighton & Hove board meeting on Monday 18 March following a report identifying that the development of affordable housing would not be financially viable due to a number of access and technical difficulties on the site.”

Details of the issues the project faced were not revealed.

Homes for Brighton & Hove has ambitions to build 1,000 new affordable homes for rent and sale in the city for lower-income, local working households.

Its board is made up of three councillors from the main parties on the council’s housing and new homes committee and three representatives from Hyde.

The council said the Whitehawk site had been identified for housing development in the draft City Plan part two, following the requirement to look for sites on which to build 1,000 new homes over a five-year period on the city’s urban fringe “to help meet the urgent need for housing established in the City Plan Part One”.

Half of these will be available to working Brighton and Hove residents earning the new national living wage for affordable rent and half will be available to purchase though shared ownership, the council added.

Both the council and Hyde said plans for the first two Homes for Brighton & Hove proposed developments were progressing.

The Portslade scheme has been scaled back from 122 homes to 111 following public consultation, while the Coldean development has 250 homes planned.

Planning decisions on both schemes are expected within weeks.