'Lack of homes will blight Brighton's recovery' (From The Argus)

'Lack of homes will blight Brighton's recovery'

10:05am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in Business News By Sam Thomson, Business Editor

Economic growth in Brighton and Hove will be hindered unless thousands more homes are built, according to an influential think tank.

Centre For Cities said in January that the city had the “right ingredients”

to bounce back strongly from the recession because of its strong private sector, high levels of entrepreneurship, highly educated workforce and large share of high-level jobs.

But in a report published today, it warns that this potential will be lost unless more homes are built, pointing out that house building rates in Brighton are 55% below the England average and the average house costs eight times the average salary. The report’s findings have led to further calls for Brighton and Hove City Council to abandon its outright ban on building on the city’s “urban fringe”.

The Conservative administration, backed by the other main parties, insists that 8,500 homes can be built before 2025 using existing brownfield sites, such as Brighton Marina, London Road and Preston Barracks.

However, the city’s Economic Partnership has questioned whether enough developers will be interested in these sites.

It has repeatedly said that areas included in the fringe, such as Toads Hole Valley, are ripe for a large mixed-use commercial and residential scheme that the city desperately needs.

Tony Mernagh, executive director of the partnership, said the Centre For Cities report supported their claims.

He said: “The news that we build below the UK average is no surprise.

The council’s housing needs, survey conducted in 2005, found that we are short of more than 1,200 affordable homes every year to meet need and I doubt that the situation has improved over the past five years.

“Our own brownfield sites are in increasingly short supply and our emerging planning strategy for the city still relies on sites that unexpectedly become available for development – windfall sites – to meet our minimum housing numbers.”

The city council’s attitude towards development has caused strong feeling from the business community.

After a large scheme for Brighton Marina was voted down by councillors on the planning committee despite being approved by officers, seven leading businessmen wrote to The Argus calling for better leadership.

They said the city was is in danger of gaining a “negative reputation”

among inward investors.

Andrew Nichols, chairman of Hove Business Association, co-signed the letter and said the Centre For Cities report backed their argument.

He added: “My opinion hasn’t changed and I would like the local authority to take more of a proactive and positive view on the big development issues, of which this is one.”

A spokesman for the city council said: “Our viewremains that the urban fringe would only be considered as a last resort if we were unable to meet housing requirements elsewhere.

However, the expectation is that we will be able to deliver all the housing required frompreviously developed land.

“We are part of a regional economy so it does not follow that every job for city residents has to be within our boundaries, or that every person who works in the city has to live in it.”

Phil Graves, president of the Brighton and Hove Estate Agent Association, agreed that there was a housing shortage in the city.

But he added: “If you start to build on inappropriate sites or if the homes are not sustainable and of poor quality design then you are solving the short-term problem but making things worse further down the line.”

Even if the city meets its housing targets, Mr Graves said he did not expect houses to become more affordable.