Housing office converted into energy-efficient temporary council homes

A former housing office in Brighton has been transformed into 10 energy-efficient new temporary council homes for people in housing need.

The development consists of one and two-bedroom flats and includes two fully wheelchair accessible properties.

In the last three years, more than 300 additional council homes have been provided across Brighton.

Cllr David Gibson, co-chair of the Housing Committee, said: ‘Providing more council homes is a top priority for us and George Cooper House is an example of how we are coming up with innovative ways of doing this. An office building has been given a new lease of life to create high quality homes for ten households. Thanks to creative initiatives such as this we are now achieving on average over 100 additional council homes a year.

‘This is a significant step change meaning the council is making a major contribution to affordable housing, doubling previous council performance, achieving more than all the city’s housing associations put together and doubling our own annual output. And at time when energy bills are rising, the high sustainability standards will help to keep bills low for residents and help towards our carbon neutral targets for 2030.’

Solar panels have been installed on the roof of the building to provide a renewable source of electricity for eight of the flats.

This is the first council housing conversion project in the city where solar panels feed directly into flats – rather than into communal electricity supplies and the national grid – helping to reduce energy bills for residents.

Six of the flats will also benefit from having an air source heat pump, which will extract warmth from the outdoor air and use it to provide hot water and heating.

All the homes are built to a high level of energy efficiency and designed to help keep heat in and keep bills low.

Cllr Gill Williams, the opposition lead for housing, said: ‘We hope the new residents will be very happy here. Providing temporary accommodation like this, which we own and run ourselves, means we can offer better support to residents who need it and reduce our reliance on private sector emergency housing.’

Photo by Maciek Wróblewski