Housing

Folkestone’s Housing Register Houdinis: A Masterclass in the Peter Principle and FHDC Maths

January 24, 2026 // 1 Comment

In the hallowed, wood-panelled halls of Folkestone & Hythe District Council, it appears that “sanity checking” has been officially outsourced to the same [...]

Folkestone Ship Street Gasworks Housing Plan: “Health Impact” Tick-Box, Toxic Land Risks, and Equality Act Red Flags in a Deprived Coastal Ward

January 12, 2026 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s proposal to transform the derelict former gasworks at Ship Street into 135 homes (planning ref: 25/1316/FH) is now out for public [...]

Mark Quinn: Quinn Estates’ Power, Philanthropy — and the Quinn Investments Accounts Behind Kent’s Biggest Developments

November 28, 2025 // 1 Comment

For most people in east Kent, the name “Mark Quinn” means big housing schemes, glossy CGI images and often fierce planning rows. Less visible is the quiet holding company [...]

Hythe Imperial Hotel, GSE Group and the Healey–Bowles Empire: Inside Kent’s Construction, Property and Truckstop Network. A Shepway Vox Investigation

November 27, 2025 // 0 Comments

When you walk along Hythe seafront, the Hythe Imperial Hotel & Spa looms over the promenade – a refurbished Victorian pile now marketed as a luxury coastal retreat. [...]

Otterpool Park Update: Millions Budgeted While Outline Permission Still Unissued; Homes England Recognises ‘Market Failure’ as 31 Dec 2026 Long-Stop Nears

November 26, 2025 // 3 Comments

By any normal measure, a council that “resolved to grant” outline planning permission, in April 2023, for a new settlement of this scale (8,500 homes) would be sprinting [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Warns Renters’ Rights Act Enforcement Is Underfunded: What the New Rules Mean for Evictions, Landlord Redress, the Property Portal and Illegal Evictions

November 26, 2025 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has issued an unusually candid note of caution about the Renters’ Rights Act: the duties are expanding fast, the practical [...]

Otterpool Park Exposed: How Folkestone & Hythe’s 10,000-Home ‘Garden Town’ Is Spending Millions Without Planning Permission

November 18, 2025 // 3 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is gearing up for yet another intense round of work on Otterpool Park – still without an actual planning permission in place, more [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Council Housing: Strong Budget, Slow New Homes

November 18, 2025 // 0 Comments

By any normal measure, Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA) is being run cautiously. At the halfway point of 2025/26, the latest [...]

Otterpool Park Update: FHDC and Homes England extend partnership

November 7, 2025 // 0 Comments

Updated 12:30 – 7 Nov 2025 Folkestone & Hythe is trying to turn a long-promised green light into a legal permission. With the six-month Collaboration Agreement [...]

Folkestone & Hythe s106 Breach at Sandgate Pavilions: Stoneleigh House Link Not Secured—14 Affordable Homes Lost

November 4, 2025 // 1 Comment

On 3 May 2016, Folkestone & Hythe’s Tory controlled Planning Committee approved Sandgate Pavilions (owned by a David Pownceby Company) (Y15/1154/SH) subject to a [...]

Stoneleigh House and the £1.716m Question: Where Did the Affordable Homes Go?

November 3, 2025 // 0 Comments

Updated: 09:35 on 3 Nov 2025 A fire-damaged Stoneleigh House on Tram Road, Folkestone, goes to auction this month with its 2018 consent for 14 affordable flats long since [...]

Napier Barracks: Clearsprings Profits as Kent’s Private Rental Market Squeezed

November 1, 2025 // 0 Comments

On the edge of town, Napier Barracks has come to symbolise a national experiment in mass asylum accommodation that a High Court judge ruled unlawful in 2021. The Home [...]

Otterpool Park LLP: £2.2m Interest Owed on £24m Folkestone & Hythe District Council Loans — Explained

October 19, 2025 // 0 Comments

Otterpool Park LLP—the master-developer vehicle wholly controlled by Folkestone & Hythe District Council—has leaned ever more heavily on council loans while tangible [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Plan to Cut Temporary Accommodation Costs

October 17, 2025 // 0 Comments

Cabinet backs a £5m plan to buy 20 council-owned homes for temporary accommodation and temporarily switch up to 20 existing council properties — as usage has doubled from [...]

Folkestone & Hythe DC Temporary Accommodation Costs Forecast to Rise £273,500 (≈30%) to £1.2m in 2025/26

October 14, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council warns that the cost of housing homeless households in temporary accommodation (TA) is spiralling. In 2024/25 the council’s own [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council sets aside £188,000 a month for debt

October 9, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has taken on £38 million in borrowing from other local authorities to fund its flagship Otterpool Park development – even though [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council Performance: Waste, Housing, Planning—What to Know

September 22, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe’s Q1 performance, 2024/25 vs 2025/26: where the council’s flying, where it’s flagging, and where the lid’s still stuck on the recycling bin. If [...]

Highview Folkestone £800k sale — Did Leo Griggs get it cheap?

September 15, 2025 // 2 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has sold the former Highview School site on Moat Farm Road for £800,000, despite the land being marketed last year at up to £1.895 [...]

Highview Folkestone: Listed at £1.895m, Sold by Council for £800k

September 12, 2025 // 0 Comments

Highview School in Folkestone was closed in 2016 as part of a merger that created a new special education facility, The Beacon. The following year, Kent County Council (KCC) [...]

Elmtree Farm, Sellindge: FHDC Approves 105 Homes from Quinn Homes

September 11, 2025 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s Planning Committee has given the green light – unanimously, no less – to an outline proposal for 105 new homes in Sellindge. [...]

Ship Street Folkestone: 70 Years of Dereliction Ends as Council Pushes Ahead with 135-Home Gasworks Redevelopment

September 11, 2025 // 0 Comments

After lying derelict for decades, the former gasworks off Ship Street is finally inching toward a new life. Folkestone & Hythe District Council has submitted an outline [...]

Folkestone & Hythe District Council FOI Fiasco Returns: Housing Data Contradictions

August 29, 2025 // 0 Comments

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has turned transparency from a legal duty into a parlour trick. Once is a mistake, twice is a pattern, three times is a habit—and [...]

Otterpool Park Update: SNRG Sign Deal to Provide Smart Grid to Power 8,500 Homes at Otterpool Park by 2057

August 26, 2025 // 2 Comments

A funded private smart grid promises lower bills for residents, fewer headaches for housebuilders and a new income stream for the council — with every home due to be [...]

Folkestone & Hythe Housing Crisis: Temporary Accommodation Costs Surge 3,461% as Rents Rise, House Prices Soar, and 943 Homes Sit Empty

August 24, 2025 // 1 Comment

Folkestone & Hythe District Council is facing a housing dilemma that is stretching budgets and putting families under strain. The cost of temporary accommodation has [...]

Revealed: Thousands of Empty Homes Across 12 Kent Districts While Families Wait Years for Housing

July 28, 2025 // 0 Comments

Using publicly available data published by the Department of Levelling UP Housing & Communities on vacant dwellings (empty homes) and households on waiting lists for 12 [...]

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