Independent housing news from Brighton & Hove. Fact-checked. Community-sourced.
Last updated: April 2026Brighton and Hove City Council's temporary accommodation budget, set at £28 million for 2025/26, is facing a projected overspend of £4.8 million as demand for emergency housing continues to surge. Council officers have warned the shortfall will require a mid-year reallocation from other service budgets if current placement rates continue.
Read on Sussex LiveBrighton & Hove City Council's Audit & Standards Committee met on 7 April to examine the procurement process behind the £14.7 million Base One Holdings contract for temporary accommodation management. Committee members questioned officers on why the contract was awarded via direct award rather than competitive tender, and whether the urgency justification met the requirements of the Procurement Act 2023.
Read on BH NewsOfficial figures confirm that 2,170 Brighton & Hove households are now placed in temporary accommodation — the highest level recorded since monitoring began in 2014. The latest quarterly snapshot shows a 17% year-on-year increase, with families with dependent children representing 68% of total placements.
Read on The ArgusThe petition calling for a public inquiry into the BART's House contract has surpassed 3,000 signatures, triggering a requirement for Brighton & Hove City Council to formally respond within 30 days. Campaigners say the milestone demonstrates the breadth of community concern over the council's temporary accommodation procurement practices.
Read on BH NewsThe Brighton & Hove Housing Coalition has written formally to council leader Bella Sankey calling for an emergency full council debate on the use of direct award contracts in temporary accommodation procurement. The Coalition argues that at least three contracts totalling over £22 million since 2023 bypassed statutory competitive tendering requirements without adequate justification.
Read on The ArgusThe National Homeless Bill of Rights Network has published updated guidance on local authority obligations, citing Brighton & Hove as a case study in both best practice (outreach services) and areas requiring improvement (temporary accommodation quality standards). The BHHC contributed evidence to the guidance's section on procurement transparency.
Read on homelessrights.org.ukBrighton & Hove Council Leader Bella Sankey faced sharp questioning at a public meeting in Hove Town Hall after the Housing Coalition presented a dossier of direct-award decisions spanning 2022–2025. Sankey committed to commissioning an internal review but stopped short of calling for an independent inquiry, a position criticised by opposition councillors and campaigners.
Read on BH NewsBrighton's latest rough sleeper count recorded 68 people sleeping rough on the night of 19 March, a 12% reduction on the same period last year. However, the Housing Coalition has cautioned that the headline figure masks a significant increase in sofa-surfing and concealed homelessness, and that the count methodology systematically undercounts the scale of street homelessness.
Read on Sussex LiveThe Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has confirmed that the Renters' Rights Act will come into force on 1 June 2026, abolishing Section 21 no-fault evictions and introducing a new decent homes standard for the private rented sector. Housing campaigners broadly welcomed the announcement but warned that enforcement will depend on adequately resourced local authority teams.
Read on Inside HousingA joint report by the Local Government Association and London Councils estimates that local authorities in England will spend more than £2 billion on temporary accommodation in 2026/27 — a 340% increase in a decade. The report urges the government to reform the Local Housing Allowance and reinstate adequate capital funding for social housebuilding.
Read in The GuardianThe government has reaffirmed its pledge to deliver 1.5 million new homes by 2029, with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill entering committee stage in Parliament this week. However, housing campaigners note that fewer than 90,000 social homes are included in current projections, with the bulk of new supply targeted at the private market.
Read on BBC NewsCrisis UK's annual homelessness monitor records a fourth successive year of increases in statutory homelessness acceptances, with 141,000 households assessed as homeless in 2025/26. The report identifies benefit freezes, private rent increases, and a chronic shortage of affordable housing as the primary structural drivers.
Read on Crisis UKShelter has launched a national campaign urging renters to know their new rights ahead of the June commencement of the Renters' Rights Act. The campaign includes a free self-help tool allowing tenants to check whether their property meets the forthcoming decent homes standard and to log complaints ahead of the new enforcement regime.
Read on ShelterThe High Court has listed the permission hearing for the Brighton & Hove Housing Coalition's judicial review challenge to the council's direct award procurement decisions for 14–15 July 2026. The application, lodged in February, argues the council failed to comply with the standstill period requirements under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and Procurement Act 2023.
Read on Public Law ProjectThe first contested enforcement cases under the Procurement Act 2023 are emerging in the courts, with two challenges to council housing contracts heard in March 2026. Legal commentators say the decisions will clarify the extent to which urgency justifications can override competitive tendering obligations for accommodation contracts let under Regulation 32.
Read on LGLThe Supreme Court has upheld an appeal confirming that local authorities must take active steps to ensure temporary accommodation is suitable for the specific needs of families placed there, and cannot rely solely on the accommodation meeting minimum statutory size standards. The ruling is expected to affect hundreds of current placements in Brighton & Hove, where families have been placed in single-room hotel accommodation.
Read on Shelter LegalThe Public Law Project has published a new practice guide on the procedural rights of homeless persons during local authority housing assessments, covering the right to be heard, the right to reasons, and the right to challenge inadequate offers of accommodation. The guide is available free of charge and has been endorsed by the National Housing Law Centre.
Read on Public Law ProjectAnalysis by housing law blog Nearly Legal shows a 34% year-on-year rise in Section 202 review requests by homeless applicants challenging local authority housing decisions. Legal commentators attribute the increase to growing awareness of the right to review and to the expanded eligibility criteria introduced by the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017, now entering full implementation nationally.
Read on Nearly LegalBrighton & Hove City Council spends 89% of its £31.4M homelessness budget on temporary accommodation, misallocating 78% of the Homelessness Prevention Grant. Prevention assessments fell 30% in a single year.
Read the full investigation → Exposé 01How Brighton & Hove City Council awarded a multi-million pound temporary accommodation management contract without competitive tender — and what the documents reveal about the procurement justification.
Read the full investigation → Exposé 02An investigation into the placement of vulnerable families in unregistered, uninspected temporary accommodation — and the council's failure to conduct required property checks before placement.
Read the full investigation → Exposé 03A pattern-of-practice analysis revealing how Brighton & Hove has systematically invoked urgency exemptions to bypass competitive procurement — including three contracts let in the same 14-day window.
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