Horsham District Council wants to pick a builder for nine affordable homes on the Dukes Square garage site from five local firms, to finish by summer 2028.

Horsham District Council plans to have nine affordable homes built at Dukes Square in the town centre by summer 2028. To get there, it wants to skip an open national tender and invite five local building firms to bid instead.

The plan is in a report to the council’s Cabinet, which meets on Wednesday 18 November (Cabinet report, Dukes Square Housing Development Procurement Exemption).

What is being built

The homes will go on the site of the existing MT Garage in Dukes Square. Cabinet approved the scheme on 25 March 2026, the report says. All nine homes will be affordable, and two will have extra accessibility features.

Planning permission came first. The council’s planning register shows the application, for the demolition of garages and the construction of nine homes with landscaping and amenity space, was permitted on 9 October 2025 (DC/23/2242). Two conditions linked to water neutrality were then removed in July 2026 (DC/26/0921), after the district’s water neutrality rules were lifted.

Why a closed tender

The council’s own rules require an open tender for a contract of this size. The report says that would add up to three months to the timetable. It says there is “a shortage of affordable housing in the district” and the homes should be delivered “in a timely manner”.

Under the closed process:

  • nine local small and medium-sized building firms will be assessed first
  • five of them will be invited to submit tenders
  • a contractor will be appointed in early 2027

Eight of the nine firms are less than 35 miles from Horsham, most of them in Sussex. The council has not named them.

The report expects the contract to exceed £1 million. Above that figure a closed tender is not allowed without an exemption, and Cabinet must approve any exemption for contracts worth £500,000 or more. It rejected a national framework because frameworks suit contracts of £4m to £5m and above, and can add a levy.

Survey work on the site is under way to meet the planning conditions, the report says.

What it means for you

  • No building work yet. Tendering is planned for early 2027 and the homes for summer 2028, if Cabinet agrees on 18 November.
  • The homes will be affordable housing, let or sold below market rates. The report does not say which type, or how they will be allocated.

Sources