New “luxury” flats require extensive repairs before they can be let out to people on the housing waiting list. Brighton and Hove City Council bought the Kubic Apartments, in Whitehawk Road, last year for a seven-figure sum after the building was valued at £8.9 million in 2022.
Despite the council’s hope of letting homes there in the spring, work is still under way to fix a leak and make improvements to bring the building up to the council’s standards Residents’ representative Christine El-Shabba, who co-chairs the council’s east area housing management panel, said: “It seems bad ...
The council have bought them but you’ve had to go in and do quite a bit of work to them to make them safe.” READ MORE: Hove Cemetery visitors say site has been 'neglected' Her comments came as housing management panel members discussed freeing up more homes for people on the council’s waiting list. The council’s interim corporate director for housing, Martin Reid, told the panel of residents, leaseholders, councillors and officials that helping older people to downsize would free up more family homes which were desperately needed.
He said: “When we build our own homes, we build to a certain specification and that allows us to manage them for 60 years. “We purchased them as a good opportunity to deliver 38 homes at social rents because we have a grant to support that. “What we have had to do is look at adjustments to the homes and a leak in the property we’ve had to r.