HOUSES on stilts built over supermarkets and industrial car parks could solve Brighton and Hove’s chronic housing shortage, last night’s Argus debate heard.

Brighton and Hove City Council Ukip candidate Patricia Mountain raised the prospect of building “flying freeholder” housing as a solution to building more houses without damaging the city’s green belt.

She was speaking at the local council hustings debate held at the Thistle Hotel in Brighton.

Congestion charges and charging for pensioner bus passes were other radical ideas proposed by the Liberal Democrats as innovative solutions to the city’s gravest problems.

The council’s three main parties also proposed fresh thinking with Labour group leader Warren Morgan telling the audience his group was exploring fast-construction housing solutions with neighbouring authorities.

Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald said there needed to be significant reform in how the council operates while Green election campaign co-organiser Sue Shanks suggested new revenue raising opportunities were needed to tackle inequality.

The rival politicians were all vying to gain public support ahead of the local elections on May 7.

They all acknowledged that new ways of thinking were needed if the council was to address an estimated £100 million funding gap by 2019/20.

Mrs Mountain, who is standing for Ukip in Hangleton and Knoll ward, suggested homes on stilts could be a radical solution to the housing crisis in the city.

There are currently more than 20,000 households on the city council’s waiting list and an estimated housing need of 24,000.

Mrs Mountain said: “UKIP has discussed the housing problem in great length and we have come up with an innovative solution.

“We will look at supermarket car parks and industrial areas and investigate the possibility of flying freeholds of two or three storey buildings over parking areas.

“The residents won’t own the land underneath the freehold. It could be a solution to the housing crisis.”

Both Labour and Conservative group leaders said their members would take examples of more innovative working by other councils and bring them to the city if they were to form the next administration.

Councillor Theobald said: “This council runs services that are still more expensive compared to other authorities, our auditors say it every year.

“We need to reform the way the council operates and we need to decide who are the best people to develop our services.

“It could be the council, it could be the voluntary sector, it could be the private sector.”

Councillor Morgan said: “The first thing that a Labour council will do in May is commission a review of all council services carried out by the Local Government Association into what we are doing right and what we are not.”

He added that a smaller council would need a smaller communications team in response to The Argus story yesterday on local authority spend on press officers.

Councillor Shanks called for more devolution of revenue-raising powers for councils and a shake-up of the council tax system to tackle inequality.

She said: “We need to increase council tax in some areas of the city where valuations are from the 1990s.”

Paul Chandler, Liberal Democrat candidate for East Brighton and parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown, gave initial backing to UKIP’s housing on stilts proposals while suggesting congestion charges and charging for the bus pass could also be considered.