Ambitious £300 Million Regeneration Greenlit for Brighton

A £300 million regeneration proposal for the Preston Barracks area set to create over 1500 jobs and bring in £500 million worth of investment has been approved by the Brighton & Hove Planning Committee.

Named the best place to start a business in the United Kingdom, Brighton has long been a Southern hub for a thriving entrepreneurial and startup community. The saturation of small and medium business success in Brighton was largely set in motion by extensive reinvestment and urban regeneration planning implemented by the Brighton & Hove Council. Particularly the so-called Silicon Beach investment, which sought to centre Brighton as one of the leading platforms for digital and creative enterprise in the country.

In the three years since, employment in both those sectors has risen dramatically, alongside Brighton’s notoriety as a fertile bed for independent and innovative small to medium businesses.

To replicate the success of the 2014 regeneration, Brighton & Hove Planning Committee granted approval for a £300 million redevelopment of the Preston Barracks and the University of Brighton’s Moulsecoomb campus. Aiming, on completion, to create over 1500 jobs, hundreds of new homes and attract an estimated £500 million reinvestment into the city over the next ten years.

The site plans to develop a sustainable, employment-led site to organically re-generate an area which has been derelict for 20 years.

One of the largest and most ambitious regeneration projects to have been brought forward in Brighton for a number of years, the site which will span across Lewes Road is set to radically transform this part of Brighton and attract enterprising and high-growth companies and increased international investment into Brighton and Hove. Alongside further establishing the University at the centre of Brighton’s economic life - through joining together the ‘urban gateway’ to the city, with the ‘academic corridor’ to Brighton and Sussex universities. 

To bolster the continual growth of Brighton’s independent and entrepreneurial business community, developers U+I, with funding from the the Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership, will build a 55,000 square foot commercial building, to house start-ups and SME's in the high-tech manufacturing sector.

The commercial building will include an accelerator company, to unlock difficult sites and provide workshop space, mentors and business support. Named the ‘Central Research Laboratory’, the project will create hundreds of new jobs and foster a sense of community within the housed businesses. The project at Lewes Road is set to pilot the pioneering FIELD scheme, which will integrate 7 innovative local start-ups within the space, using their feedback to further develop the workspace and surrounding community.

Award-winning architects, HASSELL, Studio Egret West, TP Bennett and Stride Treglown, have designed the site to also include 369 new homes, affordable housing, and 1,338 purpose built student bedrooms in managed halls of residence. They have also incorporated feedback from the local community, with a core focus on solving the congestion and continued issues with simply getting around Brighton.

For more information on the regeneration, see the full blog on Plummer Parsons. If you’d like to discuss your business issues or need advice please speak to one of Plummer Parsons accountants in our Brighton office.

Thanks to Nick at Plummer Parsons for writing this blog. 

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk