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Explore Living’s affordable housing and regeneration proposal for Brighton Marina

Plans to regenerate the Royal Sussex County Hospital will not only significantly increase its size but also its employee quota. This is great news for the job market, but the council’s housing office may wonder where it will find the much needed affordable housing to cater for this influx of doctors and nurses.

Katie Hogben, 22, a nurse at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, said: “A lot of people I studied with have now left nursing for something better-paid because of the unlikelihood of ever getting on the property ladder.

“Key worker affordable housing is an option but opportunities in Brighton and Hove are rare. I know that Explore Living is offering to include affordable housing in its development plans for Brighton Marina. I really hope the council passes these plans next month because otherwise the future for affordable housing looks pretty bleak.”
Plans to transform Brighton Marina with an environmentally friendly scheme, which is also set to create more than 760 jobs, will be discussed by council leaders on 12 December.

Along with the jobs and housing, the regeneration proposal includes a commitment to invest £2.5m in public art, improvements in local sports facilities worth £1m as well as links to a sports academy, sustainable transport initiatives totalling £2m, and a £500,000 contribution to local education.

Every other major development scheme in Brighton and Hove, along with thousands of others nationwide, have hit the economic buffers but developers Explore Living remain committed to transforming Brighton Marina.

Kemp Town resident, Alan Bonner, 25, said: “This is a great opportunity for the city. The Marina is just a stone’s throw away from me but I never go there because it’s so dull. If someone is offering to improve it, and provide the rest of the city with all of these additional benefits on top, I can’t think why we wouldn’t be grabbing the chance.

“I represent a generation that is this city’s future and I would like to see it continue to develop in a positive way. In ten years time I don’t want to be living in a museum.”
This regeneration scheme promises to transform the city’s economic environment for a new generation of Brightonians and it is hoped that for the sake of moving Brighton forward the council bites the developer’s hand-off.

For more information on Explore Living and their developments visit www.exploreliving.co.uk, tel: 01322 296300 (South East head office)

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 6:10 pm and is filed under Features, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.