Five empty three-bed Saxon Weald homes will be repaired with £547,144 instead of being sold, Cabinet decided. The 22 garage-site homes were approved too.
Five empty family homes in Billingshurst, Pulborough and Ashurst will be repaired and let again as social housing, rather than sold on the open market. Horsham District Council’s Cabinet agreed on Wednesday 23 September to give housing association Saxon Weald £547,144 to do the work (Cabinet decision).
All five are large three-bedroom homes let at social rent. They have stood empty “for a prolonged period due to significant disrepair and maintenance issues”, the report to Cabinet says (Cabinet report, 23 September 2026).
Why the homes were at risk
The repairs cost so much that Saxon Weald would have sold the homes without outside help. The report says the sale money would have gone back into housing. It also says the district would have lost five social rented family homes permanently, “at a time of significant housing need”.
Saxon Weald is the district’s largest social landlord, with around 5,400 properties. The council’s review of its Housing Register found “substantial demand” for three-bedroom homes in all three villages.
What the money buys
The £547,144 comes from Section 106 money. Developers pay it to the council in place of building affordable homes on their own sites. Split across the five homes, it works out at about £109,429 each.
The report sets that against two other costs:
- Buying a comparable three-bedroom family home “would exceed £0.4m per property”.
- Housing five large families in bed and breakfast for a year could cost the council about £235,000. That is roughly £47,000 per family.
The rent from the homes still goes to Saxon Weald, the report notes. The council gets nomination rights in perpetuity. That means each time a family moves out, the next tenant comes from the council’s Housing Register.
The council has not published the addresses. They sit in an appendix kept private under the rules on information about a person’s financial or business affairs. The report names only the three villages and the wards: Billingshurst; Pulborough, Coldwaltham and Amberley; and Steyning and Ashurst. None of the five is in Horsham town. Billingshurst is about six miles south-west of Horsham, Pulborough about eleven, and Ashurst about nine miles south.
The garage-site homes went through too
At the same meeting, Cabinet approved £2.29m of Section 106 money for Saxon Weald to build 22 homes at social rent on seven garage sites across the district (Cabinet decision). We set out the seven sites, in Southwater, Horsham, Billingshurst, Steyning, Coldwaltham and Pulborough, in our preview of that scheme.
That approval comes with two conditions. Full Council has to approve the budget, and Homes England has to approve enough grant funding.
The decision also records an option that Cabinet turned down. For about £1.32m, the same homes could have been built at affordable rent, which is set higher than social rent. It was rejected because social rent is cheaper for tenants on the lowest incomes. The report also says it fits better with Homes England’s current funding priorities.
What happens next
- 1 October: the call-in deadline for both decisions. Councillors can ask for a decision to be reviewed before it takes effect. Neither had been called in when we checked on 25 September.
- 2 October: both decisions take effect if nobody calls them in.
- 7 October: Full Council is asked to put the money into the budget. For the five homes, spending is spread across 2026/27 and 2027/28. For the garage sites, the £2.29m sits in 2027/28.
The report gives no date for the refurbished homes to be let. Money is released to Saxon Weald “in accordance with agreed milestones”. The council’s housing team will then monitor the work and the reletting.
What it means for you
If you are on the Horsham District Housing Register and need a three-bedroom home, these five are extra lets in Billingshurst, Pulborough and Ashurst. They are homes that would otherwise have gone. They are allocated through the council’s normal nominations to Saxon Weald, not applied for directly. The council explains how to join the register on its apply for housing page.
The council notes that the report was prepared with the support of artificial intelligence tools and reviewed by its author.
Sources
- Horsham District Council Cabinet decision: Section 106 funding for renovating and retrofitting five properties, decided 23 September 2026, published 24 September
- Report to Cabinet, 23 September 2026: Allocation of Section 106 Commuted Sum Funding for Renovating and Retrofitting Five Properties
- Horsham District Council Cabinet decision: Section 106 funding for the redevelopment of seven garage sites
- Cabinet meeting, 23 September 2026: agenda and decisions
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