Brighton & Hove council needs to spend £585m on its housing over the next 30 years, an independent survey has found.
The council, which has 13,000 homes, will need to spend £178m in the next five years to meet the decent homes standard in 2010, according to the report by consultant FPD Savills.

Almost half of Brighton & Hove's stock currently meets the standard but, the report said, to bring the rest up to scratch it must boost current spending levels by £68m over the next five years.

Councillor Jack Hazelgrove, chair of the council's housing management committee, said: "We always knew there was an investment gap. The age of the council housing stock means a lot of properties need work to modernise and improve them."

The council is carrying out a stock option appraisal to decide on the best way of raising the extra cash.

Tenants will be consulted during the coming year on whether they would prefer stock transfer, an arm's-length management organisation, commissioning work through the private finance initiative or to stay with the status quo.

Source

Housing Today