Albion Street Southwick

Forty-nine council flats in Southwick remain unavailable to tenants more than five years after construction began, with Adur District Council now facing millions of pounds of further costs to make them habitable.

The Albion Street development was intended to provide 25 one-bedroom and 24 two-bedroom council homes for people on Adur’s housing waiting list.

Work started in March 2021.

The council says the scheme received a £2.4 million Homes England grant, with additional funding coming from developer contributions and Right to Buy receipts.

But the project has since passed through the collapse of its original contractor, the appointment of a replacement contractor, repeated delays, water penetration, construction defects and significant weatherproofing and design problems.

What the records show about the money

WATCH Sussex identified £9,184,951.94 in payments recorded to Westridge Construction in council spending data connected with the period in which the original contractor was delivering the scheme. That figure is a payment-data total and is not presented as the final reconciled construction cost of Albion Street.

After Westridge entered administration, Cheesmur Building Contractors was appointed to continue the project. Council contract records show a Cheesmur contract value of £1,739,438. Separate council approval included £994,411, followed by a further £1.1 million investment approved in 2025.

In July 2026 the council reported an estimated further £3.2 million requirement: £2.1 million for construction, £400,000 for professional costs and £700,000 in capitalised interest. The same report also referred to £1.3 million of prior-year expenditure including £698,000 capitalised interest. Those two interest figures may overlap and must not be added together without a reconciled ledger.

Reported complete, but still empty

Council planning and housing records reported the scheme as completed in 2025, while the homes remained unavailable for occupation. The July 2026 report says all 49 homes cannot currently be occupied and identifies water ingress in 25 of them.

Major remedial work is now required. The documented problems include water penetration, defects and weatherproofing/design issues. WATCH Sussex is continuing to seek the project records needed to establish the full chronology, responsibility for defects, recoveries and the final public cost.

Questions still requiring answers

The outstanding issues include the final reconciled cost of the development; how much of the original and replacement-contractor expenditure is attributable specifically to the 49-home scheme; the treatment of capitalised interest; whether the council will recover money through bonds, insurers, contractors or professional advisers; the effect on housing budgets; and the rent foregone while the homes remain unavailable.

WATCH Sussex has also sought the underlying contracts, spending records, defect and remediation evidence, revised programme information and lessons-learned material. Missing records are treated as unanswered questions, not evidence of wrongdoing.

Editorial status: this is the Albion Street investigation published by WATCH Sussex on 29 September 2026. The figures above retain the qualifications attached to the published investigation and should not be combined into a single project-cost figure unless the council provides a reconciled account.