TWO hard-up families hope to beat high rents by building their own flat-pack homes worthy of Grand Designs.

Martyn Holmes has led the Bunker Housing Co-operative scheme to reclaim disused land from the council to build two affordable family homes off Plumpton Road in the Queen’s Park area of Brighton.

With a grant of £30,000 from the Brighton and Hove Community Land Trust, he has registered with the council’s Self Build and Custom Housebuilding Register to turn derelict former garages into the new houses.

One of the families who are set to benefit from the purpose built homes is that of Guy Mayhew and his wife Hanka, and their two children.

Hanka previously suffered a stroke, which has left her disabled and unable to work, putting extra strain on Mr Mayhew as a computer engineer to pay the ever increasing rents in Brighton.

He said: “It will be a massive change for our family because we are in private rented accommodation, with no security of tenure.

“My wife is disabled after a brain haemorrhage, this project will give us a secure and affordable place to live.

"We are looking forward to living in the new house."

Architect Raphael Lee, from Auraa, said the house is made of cheap materials which makes the project affordable and better for the environment.

He said the home will be assembled rather like flat pack furniture.

"It is a bespoke, affordable family home on a site of unused garages. These are high-spec, beautiful eco-homes," he said. "This is Grand Designs type architecture with cross laminated timber, and shows ambition in the affordable housing sector.

"The housing co-op has allowed people to pool their resources to live in a communal setting."

The innovative scheme could point the way for dozens of similar projects to reclaim urban decay with new houses that deliver a cheaper rent than many similar sized homes in the city.

Mr Holmes and his partner Agata Bogacka live in Brighton with their two children, but hope to put the days of renting misery behind them in one of the houses, which will be made of cross laminated timber.

He said: “For 20 years the site was barren, the council had locked it up. The council continues to own the land, while the co-op has a 99-year lease. This was the solution to our housing crisis."