Housing

From Unsafe Homes to a Top-Rated Council Landlord: How the East Kent Housing Scandal Forced Folkestone & Hythe to Rebuild

August 2, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has earned the regulator’s highest consumer grade. It deserves proper credit. But C1 didn’t fall from a clear blue sky. It grew [...]

Ship Street Folkestone: FHDC Backs 85-Home Orbit Scheme as Hidden Land Value and ‘400 People’ Claim Raise Questions

July 24, 2026 // 1 Comment

FHDC has approved another £132,000 for Ship Street after being told 85 homes could remove nearly 400 people from the housing waiting list. The trouble is that the list [...]

Ship Street Folkestone: Enabling Costs Could Reach £1.43m as Land Value Remains Hidden

July 20, 2026 // 0 Comments

Open Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s latest Ship Street report and one detail does all the talking: a blank where the developer’s calculated land value should [...]

Kent Coastal Housing Market Cools as Folkestone and Hythe Rents Soar

July 18, 2026 // 1 Comment

Kent’s coastal housing boom has cooled. That much is no longer seriously in doubt. The frantic bidding, sealed offers and London money that swept through Folkestone, Hythe, [...]

Four Companies Registered at Folkestone and Hythe Council Homes Raise Tenancy Fraud Audit Questions

July 15, 2026 // 0 Comments

A new Cabinet Office agreement with Airbnb will allow participating councils to compare social-housing records with holiday-let listings to identify possible illegal [...]

Saga Enbrook Park Housing Plan: Can Saga Fix The Pavilion Without Building Homes?

July 13, 2026 // 0 Comments

Saga wants residents at Enbrook Park on Monday 13 July 2026, from 4pm to 7pm, at the Main Reception, Saga Building, Enbrook Park, Sandgate. That’s the consultation, and if [...]

Former Aldi Hythe Plan: No Affordable Housing, 43 Parking Spaces at Risk – The Long Read

July 12, 2026 // 0 Comments

For seven years, Hythe has had a hole in its High Street where the old Aldi used to trade. The shutters came down in 2019, the supermarket moved to Kengate Industrial Estate, [...]

Ship Street Folkestone: Old Gasworks Still Looking For A Buyer While Affordable Homes Remain On Paper

July 10, 2026 // 0 Comments

Still for sale. Still fenced off. Still no affordable homes. Ship Street is one of those Folkestone promises that’s been round the houses without building any. The live [...]

Otterpool Park Update: Hillhurst Farm Homes Rise From 300 To 500 As Homes England Hides Land Price

July 9, 2026 // 0 Comments

In a response under the Environmental Information Regulations, Homes England has confirmed it has bought part of the Hillhurst Farm/Hillhurst Green land at Otterpool Park. [...]

Kent’s Housing Crisis: 47,839 Approved Homes, But Councils Still Fail The Delivery Test

July 8, 2026 // 1 Comment

Kent hasn’t run out of planning permissions. It’s got plenty of paper foundations. The latest Kent housing land supply audit shows 47,839 homes with planning permission [...]

Otterpool Park Design Brief To Be Submitted With Outline Planning Application Update

July 2, 2026 // 0 Comments

Otterpool Park where FHDC got a council resolution to grant outline permission in April 2023. Three years later, the actual permission still hasn’t been issued. Now the [...]

Otterpool Park First Homes: Hillhurst Costs and North Downs Views

June 26, 2026 // 3 Comments

Homes England has bought Hillhurst farmland. The first 300 Otterpool homes are being aimed at sites HF2 and HF3, where the public plans show buildings up to 12–15 metres. [...]

FHDC Housing Account: Millions Unspent on Council Homes

June 26, 2026 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s council-housing account ended 2025/26 with a much bigger reserve than expected. That’s the good news. The less comfortable [...]

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 [...]

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