The planning application , submitted by regeneration specialists Urban Splash with Investec Bank and designed by architects Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, include 231 new homes and 1,985 sqm of non-residential space including offices, a gym, café and children’s nursery.

The development is made up of five inter-locked blocks, ranging between six and 14 storeys over a podium level, arranged in a horseshoe around a landscaped courtyard with a large atrium accessed from Preston Road, providing a mix of one to three-bedroom homes, private balconies and gardens, rooftop allotments, toddler play area and features which help it meet higher environmental standards.

Simon Gawthorpe of Urban Splash, said “The location of the building is in one of the ‘tall building corridors’ identified in the council’s Supplementary Planning Guidance on Tall Buildings and it is the right place to build a fairly dense residential development, being opposite a large public park and well-connected in terms of public transport and walking distance to jobs and leisure in the city.”

“We factored in all considerations regarding height, affect on neighbours, good design and the very great need for housing in the city and have undergone exhaustive options appraisal and scenario-testing of the design, layout, mix of uses and amount of space, to create the optimum balance of design quality, financial viability and social and community benefits.”

Details of the designs will shortly be made available on the Brighton & Hove City Council’s website and after a formal period during which the Council will invite public comment, the application will be considered by the Planning Committee later in the year. Investec Bank and the Joint Receivers, Stephen Ray and Nick Hitch of local chartered surveyors Stiles Harold Williams, who assumed responsibility for the site after the previous owners went into receivership, have brought together the team responsible for these proposals