In a bold move to address the worsening housing crisis in Brighton and Hove, the city council’s deputy leader, Jacob Taylor, is leading a trailblazing initiative to rapidly acquire properties from private landlords. Faced with near-London house prices but without the corresponding wages, the seaside city has seen a sharp rise in homelessness, with as many as 10 more people sleeping rough each week.
To tackle this pressing issue, the council is spending £50 million to acquire 200 homes over the next two years, effectively reversing the right-to-buy scheme introduced under Margaret Thatcher’s government. This policy, which has led to the loss of over a third of the council’s housing stock locally, has been a “disaster” according to Taylor, costing taxpayers nearly £200 billion in one of the biggest transfers of public wealth to private hands in modern history.
“The housing crisis is so bad in Brighton – we have near-London house prices but don’t have London wages,” Taylor explains as he surveys the latest addition to the council’s property portfolio, a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom flats built on the playing fields of an old private school. “It’s actually been getting worse in the last year, not better.”
By directly purchasing properties from private landlords, the council aims to replenish its depleted stock of social homes and temporary accommodation, reducing the strain on public finances and the reliance on expensive private rentals. This approach, which Taylor describes as “right-to-buy in reverse,” is a bold move to tackle the national crisis at a local level.
“You can’t underestimate the impact it’s having on people,” says Taylor. “As yet, I haven’t got enough homes versus the demand. But I am not going to put up with this disaster. I am determined to dramatically reduce the problem.”
The housing shortage, spiralling rents, and the cost to local authorities of housing families in temporary accommodation are not unique to Brighton. David Chaffey, the chief executive of BHT Sussex, a social housing provider, says the lack of affordable housing is causing “untold social misery and strangling the local economy.”
While Labour’s national plan to build 1.5 million new homes will help, Taylor fears that ministers, “playing a numbers game,” might prioritise areas with lower development costs, which could be problematic for Brighton, where land is scarce or costly. Nevertheless, the council’s acquisition programme is a step in the right direction, slowly but surely growing its housing stock for the first time in decades.
As the tide begins to turn on the south coast, other councils and the government should take note of Brighton’s innovative approach. In the face of a national crisis, the city’s determination to tackle the issue head-on could serve as a model for communities across the country.