Should Brighton and Hove flat refuse to lose family homes?

The trend now seems to be spreading to other parts of Sussex.

Faced with a shortage of land to build new homes and a rising demand for new dwellings, the only option for new housing is to split larger family homes into flats.

On the face of it, schemes to create flats from single dwellings tick a number of boxes.

They appease the demands of local authorities for multiple occupier homes, the same demands that prevent many of the city’s Georgian town houses being converted back into a single, luxurious unit.

The developments also satisfy Government targets for new homes.

Shortage But, on closer inspection, there are downsides.

Bill Randall, a Green city councillor for the Hanover and Elm Grove ward, explained: “There is an increasing shortage of family homes and I don’t think converting them into flats is a good idea.

“The result of this is people are forced to move out of the city and these are sons and daughters of the city who cannot afford to buy in an increasingly competitive market.

There is a crisis in family housing in the city.

“It would be up to the council to control this and I think certainly other councils, such as Leeds, have done it to stop the spread of this type of housing.

“Brighton and Hove has a lot of young people and needs one and two-bedroom flats but you also need a balance and perhaps we need to have a fresh look at the city’s housing strategy.

“A good deal of new building has been small flats.

Not enough family homes are being built and too many family homes are being lost to flats.

“A lot of council housing sold under the right to buy have been converted.

This can be seen in Bevendean.

“We need a spread of housing meeting the needs of the city and we should have housing that makes it possible for everyone to live here.

Families moving out is not a good idea and I have heard a lot from Brightonian families whose children have had to move out of the city.”

Coun Randall said communities made up mostly by families needed to be protected, as splitting a home into flats can have a dramatic effect.

He said: “I remember one resident telling me it was like living on a campus.”

It was the transformation of a close-knit community into a fractured one that Worthing couple Dave and Doreen Butler fought in vain against.

The school workers battled for two years to stop a neighbouring house in Franklin Road, Durrington, being converted into three flats.

Mr Butler, 52, an IT systems manager at Orchards County Middle School, in Nelson Road, Goring, launched a campaign to Save Our Semi.

He said: “Two years ago developers bought the house next door and wanted to turn it from one three-bedroom home into three flats each with three bedrooms.

“The council turned the application down and a planning inspector rejected an appeal by the developers.

“Then they put in a new application for three twobedroom flats and to extend the property.

“This whole nightmare has caused us sleepless nights and a great deal of stress because of the worry about what is going to happen.

“We are used to people moving around here but what we are not used to is involuntarily being moved into a block of flats.”

The couple found out this week the development had been given the go-ahead.

Tory councillor Maria Caulfield, who is the cabinet member for housing in Brighton and Hove, said the preservation of family homes in the city was a priority for the council.

She said: “We know the main shortage is family homes.

“We have a surplus of studio flats and one-bedroom flats.

“Students and the buy-to-let market fits into that but it does put a lot of pressure on families because there is not much available.”

Overcrowding Coun Caulfield said Brighton and Hove City Council has an under-occupancy officer to help move council tenants who live in large family homes but whose children have moved out.

She added: “We also have an overcrowding project working with private landlords in the city, where the council takes out a ten-year or 25-year lease to house families.

“Because we don’t have the number of family homes in our own stock that we need we can lease from private landlords.”

Coun Caulfield said the scheme had proved successful in combating overcrowding and in encouraging landlords to keep their family houses and not split them into flats.

Because the council offers landlords long-term deals, Coun Caulfield said there was an incentive for them to sign up for less rent compared with shortterm high rent from students, enabling the council to strike a good deal.

She said Brighton and Hove City Council did not have a policy of refusing planning applications solely on the grounds they may split up larger homes.

She did say factors such as the number of parking spaces would come into play when deciding plans.

Everyone agrees family homes need to be saved.

Efforts are being made but are they enough to stop family homes being turned into flats? Unfortunately it seems to be a situation where time can only tell but, like most mistakes that happen, you only realise when its too late.