The council’s cabinet is being asked to back spending £2.4 million of developers’ cash on seafront projects including Black Rock, the Madeira Terraces and Hove Beach Park.
A report to Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet proposes allocating the money from the community infrastructure levy (CIL), a city-wide pot funded with money from developers linked to planning applications.
The report proposes spending £184,000 to support the Thriving Communities Fund to give micro-grants to community groups working with the most disadvantaged.
It proposes putting £235,900 into the neighbourhood CIL pot which allocates money to each of the 23 council wards in Brighton and Hove.
A call for suggestions on how to use the money in each ward will be published on the Your Voice section of the council’s website.
Since CIL started in October 2020, the council has received £3 million to spend on infrastructure across Brighton and Hove.
In contrast, the capital programme for the current financial year requires borrowing of £37.4 million.
The report said: “In particular, the council has had to borrow to deliver significant seafront projects such as Madeira Terrace, Black Rock enabling works and Hove Beach Park.
“Utilising £2.4 million of the citywide CIL receipts will reduce the ongoing revenue borrowing costs to support investment in the programme by £180,000 per year over 15 years.
“If used to reduce the cost of borrowing, this will help to reduce the ongoing revenue funding pressures that the council will continue to face in future years and the CIL will have been used for its intended purpose as a driver of regeneration.”
According to the report, failing to spend the money now would result in increased borrowing costs for the capital programme.
There is potentially £6.9 million in future CIL funds for projects which have secured planning permission but are not yet under way.
The cabinet is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 2pm next Thursday (20 March). The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
