Folkestone & Hythe Council Housing: Strong Budget, Slow New Homes
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 [...]
Housing
Otterpool Park Update: FHDC and Homes England extend partnership
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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
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?
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Council’s Housing Shame: Five Years of Inaction and Budget Underspends
Updated @ 17:18 Let us begin, as all good auditors do, with the Three Es of public service delivery: Economy, Efficiency, and Effectiveness. Economy is all about cost—how [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Has Lost 1,200 Council Homes Since 2002
Over the past 22 years, Folkestone & Hythe District Council has lost 1,200 council homes. That figure alone should raise concern. But when we examine the underlying [...]
Folkestone & Hythe Council Faces £10m Housing Repairs Backlog Despite Budget Surplus
Folkestone & Hythe District Council is under scrutiny after delaying £10 million in vital housing repairs, despite posting a major budget surplus. Tenants question where [...]
Folkestone & Hythe District Council Temporary Accommodation Costs Hit Record £926K as Affordable Housing Falls Short
Folkestone & Hythe District Council spent £919,871 on temporary accommodation in 2024/25—its highest annual total on record—despite investing in affordable housing [...]