Proposal for council-owned housing company
A key proposal in the 2025/26 budget plans is to set up a new council-owned housing company.
In its first year, the company will help the council to improve the quality and manage the cost of temporary accommodation homes in Brighton & Hove.
One of the priorities in our ‘Homes for Everyone, Housing Strategy 2024 to 2029’ is to prevent homelessness and meet housing need. A key aspect of that is to improve the offer of temporary accommodation in the city.
Figures from December 2024 show the number of households staying in temporary accommodation in the city is more than 1,900 – a figure that is sadly continuing to increase.
The cost of providing temporary accommodation this year is expected to be around £24.4 million.
Improving quality and value for money
Setting up a housing company would offer greater flexibility on borrowing and rental income to support the council to buy – and potentially lease – more temporary properties in the city.
In addition to the programme that’s already in place to increase the number of directly council-owned and managed temporary accommodation properties, this would help reduce the city’s reliance on private sector providers.
The overall aim is to improve the quality of accommodation, management and the support offered to people living in the homes, as well as offer greater value for money.
If the outline business case is agreed, the plan would be to begin the process of setting up the housing company in the spring.
Meeting increasing housing need
Councillor Gill Williams, Cabinet member for Housing and New Homes, said: “I am delighted that we are proposing to set up a housing company. This is the kind of bold action needed to help realise our goal of ending homelessness in Brighton and & Hove.
“We know more and more residents are facing severe, challenging housing needs.
“The increasing costs of housing, ending of tenancies, changes in national policy and a shortage of genuinely affordable housing have led to an increase in the number of households at risk of homelessness.
“Like many areas, one of the outcomes of this is an increase in the number of people finding themselves in temporary and emergency accommodation.
“Our aim is to do as much as we can to reduce the number of people in the city who find themselves in that situation.
“However, temporary accommodation is a key support service in keeping homeless people from the streets – and the proposed housing company will allow us to increase the supply of well-managed, decent accommodation.
“The more we can reduce the reliance on varying quality and high-cost private sector providers, the more we can make sure we’re improving homes for everyone.”