Decision - Future of New England House

Brighton and Hove Cabinet Decided 20 Mar 2025 · effective 29 Mar 2025 approved Key decision GET /api/coverage

Decision maker

Cabinet

Report author

Nicholas Fishlock

Published

21 Mar 2025

Reference

7412

As published

the council's own words, unedited

This report seeks approval to appoint a project team and further develop a proposal to either refurbish, or demolish and replace, New England House.

1) Cabinet agrees that the Council seek to secure vacant possession of New England House with a target date of 30 September 2025 in view of the need for the building to comply with all current fire safety standards. 2) Cabinet notes that a further report will be brought forward in Summer 2025 asking for approval of a recommendation for the future of New England House.

Parsed from the document

gpt-5.6-luna-2026-07-09 · 14293/625 tokens · 6723ms · parsed 9 Sep 2026 15:36

Everything below was read out of a PDF by a model It is useful and it is not authoritative. The document it came from is linked in the rail, and where the two disagree the document is right.

The report assesses six options for New England House, ranging from refurbishment to demolition and new-build schemes of different sizes. Refurbishment options are considered the most environmentally sustainable, but all options require further appraisal, surveys, planning or masterplanning before a final decision.

Recommendation

Further assessment is recommended, including surveys, feasibility work, programme development, tenant engagement and consideration of wider masterplanning. If refurbishment is pursued, the report indicates that the building should be vacated or largely vacated during the works.

Financial impact

Estimated total investment costs range from £28.793m to £115.005m across the six options. Available capital funding is £9.26m, and most options create a service pressure of up to £1.2m in 2025/26 and 2026/27 through loss of income; Option 2 is estimated to create a service pressure of up to £0.85m.

Stakeholders named

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New England House tenantscreative businesseslight industrial businesseswider business communitythe councilPlanning Authoritypotential future tenants

Next steps

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Produce high-level programmes with input from a contractor for refurbishment options.
Appoint a project team to develop accurate programmes for new-build options.
Undertake further building condition and structural surveys.
Assess the feasibility of deeper refurbishment and the proposed three-storey extension.
Engage with existing tenants, the tenant reference group and the wider business community.
Consider planning, placemaking and wider masterplanning for the Elder Place corridor.
Undertake further options appraisal, including possible occupancy mixes and wider commercial or residential uses.

Precedents

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"Decided elsewhere" is not built Finding the same decision in other councils needs semantic matching over decision text, which is part of the search rewrite. Until then, the council's own decisions list is the way through.