Housing

Oportunitas: FHDC’s £11.7m Landlord Faces EPC and Dividend Questions

June 21, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone and Hythe District Council’s housing company, Oportunitas, is headed back to the Cabinet on June 24th. The numbers on the table involve 75 homes, one empty shop, [...]

Hythe Foxwood Homes Plan Approved With No Affordable Housing

June 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe councillors have approved Ureco’s Foxwood scheme for up to 150 homes on the former school site above Seabrook Road, Hythe. The number of affordable [...]

FHDC’s Renters’ Rights Policy Trips Over the Law

June 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is being asked to approve its new private-sector housing civil penalties policy on 24 June — 54 days after key Renters’ Rights Act [...]

Update: Otterpool Park Next Steps: Hillhurst Farm Land Questions Loom Over Public Exhibition

June 17, 2026 // 0 Comments

The next Otterpool Park exhibition isn’t just another afternoon of glossy boards, polite smiles and “your views matter” stationery. It’s the point where the proposed [...]

New Romney Homes Plan Tests Kent’s Water-Stressed Future

June 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

A proposed 110-home scheme on farmland at New Romney has landed in the middle of Kent’s bigger water argument: how can we keep building in one of the most water-stressed [...]

Foxwood’s £86.7m Homes Plan Leaves Hythe With No Affordable Homes

June 9, 2026 // 1 Comment

A former public school site in Hythe is heading back to Folkestone & Hythe’s Planning Committee. The homes remain. The affordable housing doesn’t. And behind the [...]

Kent Adds More Homes but Delivers Fewer Affordable Homes

June 7, 2026 // 0 Comments

New MHCLG data show Kent’s 12 district councils recorded 7,724 net additional homes in 2024/25, up almost 12% in a year when England’s total fell. But the county’s [...]

FHDC Renters’ Rights Policy Wasn’t Ready When Tenants Needed It

June 3, 2026 // 1 Comment

Most private landlords had until midnight at the end of Sunday 31 May to give tenants the official Renters’ Rights information sheet. By Monday morning, FHDC didn’t [...]

Folkestone Folca 1 Flats Plan: Planning Law and Noise Risks

May 15, 2026 // 2 Comments

Folca 1 is heading towards retail and flats, not the medical centre once promised. But this isn’t a normal planning application. It’s a narrow Class MA prior approval [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Temporary Accommodation Bill Hits £1.52m

May 7, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s published payments for temporary accommodation reached £1,520,865.70 in 2025/26 under just two descriptions: Bed & Breakfast [...]

FHDC Temporary Accommodation Contracts Show £570k Spending Gap

May 7, 2026 // 2 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s temporary accommodation trail shows two contract periods where the published payments appear to exceed the published values by a [...]

Stodmarsh Nutrient Credits: Will Kent’s New Pollution Offset Market Unlock Homes or Just Sell Clean-River Promises?

May 6, 2026 // 1 Comment

For years, Stodmarsh has been the wetland that stopped the bulldozers. Now councils and private firms say nutrient credits can unlock thousands of homes. That may be [...]

Section 21 Eviction: When Missing Landlord Paperwork Can Stop Possession

May 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

A Folkestone tenant facing a steep rent rise and a no-fault eviction notice may have more protection than the landlord appears to think There’s an old truth in housing law: [...]

Folkestone & Hythe HMO Licensing Gap: 312 Estimated Shared Houses, 63 Licences

April 27, 2026 // 4 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe says HMOs with five or more people in two or more households need a licence. Yet the latest MHCLG housing return points to an estimated 312 [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Tops Kent Table for Serious Private Rented Housing Hazards

April 22, 2026 // 1 Comment

Kent housing officers said the local evidence base on poor housing conditions was “scarce”. Even so, MHCLG’s latest return shows Folkestone & Hythe with the highest [...]

Renters’ Rights Act: Part 2 — What Folkestone & Hythe Tenants Need to Watch From 1 May 2026

April 21, 2026 // 1 Comment

The new law is bigger than section 21. The real tests will be whether loopholes open up, whether councils enforce, and whether the courts can cope once simple no-fault cases [...]

Renters’ Rights Act: Part 1 — What Folkestone & Hythe Tenants Need to Know From 1 May 2026

April 20, 2026 // 0 Comments

From 1 May 2026, the Renters’ Rights Act starts changing how private renting works in England. For tenants in Folkestone & Hythe, the biggest shift is simple: a home [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Rents Rise as Home Ownership Moves Further Out of Reach

April 13, 2026 // 2 Comments

Private rents in Folkestone & Hythe remain lower than the South East average in cash terms. But they are rising faster locally, and the gap between earnings and house [...]

Otterpool Park Update: Homes England’s Westenhanger Land Move and the Pack Field Silence

April 10, 2026 // 2 Comments

Updated: 06:50 11/04/26 At Lympne Parish Council Annual Meeting on 8 April, FHDC leader Jim Martin said Homes England is in the process of acquiring land within walking [...]

Otterpool Park Update: Phase 1B Emerges as Likely Start for Early Homes

March 31, 2026 // 0 Comments

The latest Homes England announcement is dressed in the usual language of collaboration, momentum and delivery. But the most important Otterpool development is not in the [...]

FHDC Homelessness Spending: Temporary Accommodation Costs Soar as Prevention Fund and Private Sector Offer Payments Rise

February 26, 2026 // 0 Comments

If you want to understand the housing pressure in Folkestone & Hythe, start with the bit that hurts: the emergency bill. Between April 2025 and January 2026, Folkestone [...]

Folkestone & Hythe’s Risborough Barracks Deal: Taylor Wimpey Payments Revealed as Temporary Accommodation Costs Soar

February 25, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has so far paid Taylor Wimpey £2,390,013.56 towards the Risborough Barracks affordable homes scheme, based on supplier payment data [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Housing Register: The Five-Bedroom “Ghost Queue” Trapping 11 Families

February 18, 2026 // 0 Comments

This is a Guest Post On the Folkestone & Hythe District Council housing register there is a category that, on paper, looks normal. In practice it behaves like a dead end. [...]

Temporary Accommodation Costs Hit Record High at Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Passing £1m

February 6, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s spending on temporary accommodation has now crossed £1,052,870 in the current financial year, according to the council’s [...]

Ofsted: Kent Care Leavers in Unsafe Homes

February 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

In Kent, young adults leaving care are telling inspectors something no “corporate parent” should ever have to hear: I don’t feel safe where I live. In a local authority [...]

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