Council Begins Work On First "Affordable" Homes in Lewes For Five Years

Leading councillors at Lewes District Council agreed, on June 11, action to create new affordable homes in the district.

What the authority called a "wide-ranging plan" includes 12 new properties at Saxonbury House, which councillors say is the first affordable housing developed in the town of Lewes for five years.

The Saxonbury House scheme, on Juggs Road on the south-west outskirts of the town, will create six two-bed flats and six one-bed flats.

The authority believes local residents on the council's housing register will take possession of their new homes in April 2021.

Councillor James MacCleary, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Prosperity, said:

"At a time when good news is very thin on the ground, this report certainly makes welcome reading for anyone who cares about the availability of social housing in the district.

"When the Co-operative Alliance took control of the council less than a year ago, we made the delivery of affordable and sustainable homes central to all our plans.

"I was delighted with the five homes we announced in Newhaven at the end of last year and I am greatly encouraged and excited by the prospect of what is still to come."

While the council said preliminary clearance on the Saxonbury House site was already underway, formal works should begin in July.

Contractors were expected to modernise and transform the well-known local building into much-needed, affordable rented housing.

Councillor William Meyer, Cabinet Member for Housing, said:

"Looking beyond our development of new homes in Lewes town, we will also deliver two housing schemes in the north of the district in areas that are often unaffordable to most people.

"This will ensure residents from rural communities can be close to jobs, schools and family networks, rather than having to move elsewhere."

Conservatives on Lewes District Council, who are the single largest party but are in a minority, had earlier asked the authority to reconsider whether the homes at Saxonbury House should be rented, or offered for sale under shared ownership terms on the open market.

Cllr Isabelle Linington, leader of the Conservative group, said:

"We have a duty to spend public money wisely and for the benefit of as many as possible across the entire district.

“It is clear that additional affordable housing for rent or shared ownership could be created, in several locations across the district, under the original scheme, and that must be the correct way forward.”

According to Rightmove, the average price of a flat in Lewes in the year to June 2020 was £346,047.

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