Right to Buy in Kent: How Council Homes Were Sold Off
Right to Buy is usually told as a Thatcher fairy tale with a sold sign. The neat version says Margaret Thatcher arrived, handed council tenants a key to capitalism, and [...]
Affordable Housing
Folkestone Affordable Housing: How 14 Homes Were Lost at Stoneleigh House, Tram Road
An insolvency report, two auction catalogues and one carefully chosen council word tell a bleak story about how Folkestone lost 14 affordable homes and may yet lose the [...]
Affordable Homes Lost After Council Fails to Enforce Legal Planning Condition
This is a story of lost affordable housing. At the Full Council meeting on 23 July 2025, Cllr Jim Martin responded to a question from Cllr Nicola Keen about affordable [...]
Section 106 Disaster in Folkestone: £1.7 Million Missing, No Affordable Homes Delivered
Fourteen affordable homes promised. £1.716 million pledged in Section 106 contributions. Not a brick laid, not a pound received. Instead, Stoneleigh House and its adjoining [...]
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 [...]
Outcome: Kingston Homes’ Hythe Plan: Luxury Builds, Zero Affordable Housing
Chairman Jackie Meade (with the patience of a saint): “Alright folks, let’s dive into Application 21/0553/FH – Land oppiste 24 Station Road Hythe CT21 5PW – [...]
Kingston Homes’ Hythe Plan: Luxury Builds, Zero Affordable Housing
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Planning Committee, (18 March 2025) Gather ’round, for we have a mystery on our hands—a mystery so baffling, so ludicrous, that even [...]
Council Temporary Accommodation costs at highest levels ever
The reality of the figures published by Folkestone & Hythe District Council in their payment to suppliers data shows incontrovertibly the cost of housing people in [...]
Harbour Plan: Should the affordable housing be built elsewhere?
Throughout all the Folkestone Harbour Plan consultations which took place between Oct 2022 – August 2023, we were all informed the number of affordable housing plots [...]
One household every five days placed into temporary accommodation out of Folkestone & Hythe District
In real life, poverty and dignity are not good bedfellows. Making good and clean floors are all well and good. But modern day virtues are easier to hold when you rise every [...]
Where’s the s106 money and the affordable housing Mr Pownceby?
On the 3 May 2016, Y15/1154/SH came before the planning committee. The applicant was David Pownceby, of Development House Limited. At the time he was the secretary of the [...]
Housing, Housing, Housing we need more affordable housing
There is no doubt we need to build more affordable homes in our district. I expect every candidate in this election, whether they belong to a party or not, would agree we [...]
Otterpool Park Update: The Elephant in the Room
The Otterpool Park Financial Viability Assessment (VA) assumes the development to be 100% debt financed. So having taken the time to look at the VA, and also get the views of [...]