If city does not want ‘exemplar’ homes they’ll go elsewhere

Award-winning Futureform has said it is inundated with offers from around the country to build its homes should plans to develop part of Benfield Valley fall through.

The Shoreham-based firm has an option until 2020 to develop the Hove site but residents are already mounting opposition to build on what is described as West Hove’s last green lung.

Chief executive Steven Barrett told The Argus his company, which builds steel-framed modules at a factory before transporting them in place, could deliver homes cheaper, more efficiently and more sustainably than traditional housebuilders.

The firm is also in talks to build hundreds of homes on two sites in Newhaven and redevelop a rundown Brighton city centre site with a new hotel.

The firm won global recognition for its 200 bed CitizenM hotel in London which opened six months early in time for the 2012 Olympic games .

Mr Barrett said: “After CitizenM, we have got other hotel operators coming to us saying ‘find us five sites, develop out the hotels and create us a new brand’. We are working on one in Brighton now.

“The project will bring other benefits to a totally rundown site. It could be a real international award-winner. There is only one other hotel of its type in UK and the next one will be in Brighton.”

Bouygues was the last developer to try and build on Benfield but its 380 home plan in 2014 never came to fruition.

Futureform is looking to build 800 homes but will match the same rooms as the 380 homes scheme by Bouygues.

Mr Barrett said the difference would be the Futureform scheme would focus on providing houses for graduates and retirees rather than building “luxury houses” to attract wealthy families from outside the city.

He said the scheme could be delivered in two and a half years compared to the five to seven years it would take a traditional housebuilder. It is hoped that work on the site could begin as early as next year if planning is secured.

Mr Barrett said: “We could have one of these developments right on our doorstep, it would be an exemplar project. We are not the normal housebuilder.

“Benfield Valley could be a major scheme but if we can’t get the numbers to make it economically viable then who knows what will happen to it. If we don’t get something through under our option, then it will be open to anyone to come along and put whatever they can force through planning.

“If we don’t get encouragement where we are set up, we will have to look at other opportunities. I don’t want to do that. I have good friends and good staff here and we want to make the most of this world-leading technology. We moved everything from Wellingborough to give the local people down here the benefit of it.”

Residents and ward councillors have already raised objections to the scheme. They are angry at ecological studies carried out by contractors which they claim devastated the wildlife.

Cllr Dawn Barnett said: “It was more than just an ecological study, they’ve driven all the wildlife away by ripping everything up. I appreciate we need the houses but we do need some green spaces. Futureform houses look nice but it is still taking away that green lung.”

Mr Barrett said Futureform spent “a small fortune” on consultants and liaised with the council before clearing two skips of plastic and rubbish left behind by dogwalkers and golfers over decades.

He said: “That rubbish, brambles and Japanese Spindleweed had completely clogged up the area. If you go up there now there are new shoots coming through because all the rubbish that should not have been there has gone.

“We only did a very small area, that should really be done to the whole area.”

CUSTOMERS CAN WALK IN OFF THE STREET AND PICK FROM 11 MODEL HOMES AS IF BUYING A NEW CAR

DEVELOPER Futureform has the royal seal of approval, now they are after the support of Hove residents, council officers and councillors.

The Shoreham-based firm’s homes have been selected to be used in the Prince of Wales Dumfries House development in Scotland.

It is one of many accolades the Brighton Road firm has picked up since its formation in 2004 by founders with an engineering rather than housebuilding background.

Futureform built the first level five carbon neutral house in West London and was the first “volumetric” housebuilder to win a UK architectural housing award.

Bosses prefer the term “volumetric” rather than the pejorative “prefab” though the concept is the same, homes built off site in a factory and then delivered finished on site.

What makes Futureform stand out is its eco credentials, the modules they produce are made from more than 60 per cent recycled steel but are incredibly strong when welded together.

They are capable of being stacked to more than 20 storeys when competitors can only reach eight and are able to withstand earthquakes.

The construction industry is responsible for 65 per cent of all waste in the UK but Futureform’s technique reduces wastage by more than 95 per cent.

The company opened its first factory in Shoreham in February.

One of its quirks is how customers can walk in off the street and buy a house like they would a car, selecting from 11 models and picking everything down to the fixtures and fittings.

CEO Steven Barrett said: “What we have been looking for is projects local to where we set our factory up. All of us live in this area along the south coast.”

The factory, which employs 125 people, has the capacity to build around 1,000 homes a year but the clock is already ticking at Shoreham Free Wharf which is due for regeneration in the next four years.

Futureform is looking to expand to a neighbouring vacant plot and develop another four UK factories.

The company already has a long history of schemes in London and is currently in demand around the country.

Modules under construction are for a 150-bed student accommodation block in Nottingham.

The company is also working on seasonal housing for Aberdeen oil workers.

Benfield Valley could become its first major Sussex scheme.

Mr Barrett said: “We were asked to look at it before another major housebuilder got in and proposed to build 400 luxury homes for people outside the area to come and buy.

“We have looked at it on the basis of creating no more bedrooms than the 380 homes proposed before but they won’t be five or six bedroom houses, they will be houses for local people.

“A combination of housing based on a concept we devised called Lifetime Development.”

Part of the concept focuses on graduates leaving university, in a city with the highest retained number of students anywhere in the UK, and offering an alternative to grotty old bedsits.

Young living homes are billed as a “step-up” from student accommodation.

Extra facilities include dining rooms for hire for family visits, TV cinema rooms, gym and artist studios for rent.

Mr Barrett said: “That concept worked in London and Manchester in two other projects, not done by us but we’ve seen it work.

“We think we will do it better because we’re adding more facilities.”

The site would also include apartments and houses for rent, plots for custom build houses and a “relatively small number” of open market housing.

At the other end of Lifetime Development would be “high-quality” retirement homes.

Mr Barrett said: “Someone could leave university, college or school, move into young living and stay in that community right the way through their life.”

Preparatory work on Benfield Valley stoked anger from residents who perceived a malicious clearing away of wildlife and an equally angry response from Futureform bosses who believe they have acted responsibly.

Mr Barrett said: “We are not hack and bash, destroy the environment type people.

“We are one of the most environmentally aware and sensitive companies working in construction in the UK.”

Opponents to the scheme are concerned about the loss of the green lung in Hove.

But Mr Barrett said any depiction of Benfield Valley as a beauty spot at the moment was a little wide of the mark.

The land is in fact private land with little public rights apart from a couple of paths.

Mr Barrett said there was currently no easy route to access the national park.

He added: “If people want a green lung, then make it a proper green lung. A managed, environmentally and sensitively controlled lung for the city but you can’t do that without income.

“The council can’t manage the playing fields they currently have let alone new access ways on to the Downs. Where else will you put these homes that the city needs?

“They say there are other sites but I ask ‘where are these sites?’ “There are other sites but they are under other people’s control, and what they will put on those sites is not what we will put on them.”

‘BENFIELD VALLEY IS PERFECT FOR REDEVELOPING’

THE landowner of Benfield Valley has advised residents the site will be developed sooner or later.

Laurence Boon, of Benfield Investments which has a 225-year lease on the Hove land, said sites like it would have to help meet the growing housing need.

He said: “The inspector has ordered Brighton and Hove City Council to look at greenfield sites.

“Sites like Toad’s Hole Valley, like Benfield Valley.

“Hopefully Futureform will be successful and give the area the housing it needs.

“There will always be some people who will not want any building anywhere but all those houses already in Benfield Valley were built on green sites.

“Nobody is asking for their house to be knocked down and returned to fields.”

Mr Boon said Benfield was more appropriate than other sites mooted for large developments in the county.

He said: “Benfield Valley is the perfect site for redevelopment; its right on the bus route, it’s within walking distance of Portslade station and Sainsbury’s.

“If you look at the alternatives to build 600 homes off the most polluted high street in Sussex at Shoreham or building hundreds of homes off its busiest road and putting in a new roundabout, then Benfield is a better option.”

Rumours had reached The Argus that Benfield Valley Golf Course had been closed.

But Mr Boon dismissed the rumour, describing it as “fake news”.

He said: “It’s still open. The ten people who use it each week know it’s still open.”

The site has been the subject of plans before that did not materialise, first for a restaurant, wedding venue, 58-room hotel, golf shop, a gym, a driving range and all-weather sports pitches rejected in 2006 and then a 380 home in 2014.

But Mr Boon said this did not suggest the site would be difficult to develop.

He said: “There has only been one set of plans put up.

“We were badly advised to go for such a large scheme while Bouygues decided they would no longer do housing.”

Despite the likely opposition to plans, Mr Boon said he did not believe anything would be happening in the immediate future.

He said: “I think we are talking about long-term plans rather than short-term.

“I don’t think they will be moving people in at Christmas.

“Futureform’s building does make it quicker.

“But they’ve still got to get the permission and the hard standing. They are just investigating. Everything will be put forward in a public consultation.”