“A lot of people have been through that journey, and then they want to buy their home. And I respect that. But we can give them an alternative.”
As Cllr Williams explains, if a resident chooses to take them up on the offer, it will save the council money in the long run.
“If we lose a council home, it will cost us something like £300,000 to replace or take a couple of years to build another one – so you can see the logic,” says the Labour councillor.
“Then we’ve got more spaces to move people from temporary into permanent homes.
“I’m quite excited to see how this pilot goes.”
The scheme will run for a year and will only be offered to 10 households to begin with. The first household is currently going through the process with BHCC.
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The new pilot is part of a wider drive by the council to boost council housing stock, including buying back many properties previously lost through Right To Buy. In October, the council announced plans to spend £50m to acquire 200 homes over the next two years.
Big Issue has previously covered the cost of so-called yo-yo homes, revealing how councils are paying over the odds to buy homes previously sold through Right To Buy.
BHCC has acquired 112 properties in the past year alone, allowing the council to be less reliant on private housing providers and have more control over the quality of its temporary accommodation. But the local authority is increasingly turning its attention to HMOs that landlords are struggling to fill due to a fall in demand for student accommodation in the city.
“Landlords who had bought council homes many years ago and converted them into five and six-bed HMOs for students are now coming to us, and we’re purchasing them where we can. It’s been very successful,” says Cllr Williams. “There are a lot of people who are in council homes, but are very overcrowded, so we are converting those bigger HMOs back into four and three-bed homes because they are very much needed.”
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Cllr Williams’ passion for ensuring everyone has access to suitable accommodation, particularly families living in overcrowded conditions, is partly driven by her own experience of homelessness. As a mother to three young children, she lived in a state of constant uncertainty that comes with not having a home to call your own.
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“Many years ago, I did have difficulty finding a home,” she told Big Issue. “I spent a lot of years in the private sector, moving every five minutes. I know how awful and distressing it can be not to have those roots and always worrying ‘how long can I stay here?’
“So I really feel for anybody going through that, particularly with children.”
As well as buying up ex-council houses and potentially stopping more homes being lost to Right To Buy, Brighton is taking Labour’s vow to “get Britain building again” to heart.
Labour announced Right to Buy eligibility would be tightened at this year’s King’s Speech. Under the changes, newbuild homes will be exempt from Right to Buy for 35 years and households will have to live in their home for 10 years to qualify for the scheme, up from three years.
“There are hundreds and hundreds of new homes in the pipeline,” says Cllr Williams. “We are literally building houses in every tiny nook and cranny that we can find.
“One council home that came vacant had a huge back garden, so we carved it and built another house in it.
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“We are leaving no stone unturned, as far as I’m concerned.”
But BHCC’s commitment to tackling the city’s temporary accommodation crisis doesn’t begin and end with its build-and-buy spree. Brighton has put itself forward for a government pilot scheme to force registration of short-term lets, including Airbnb holiday rentals, which have been blamed for housing supply issues and soaring rents in tourist hotspots.
As there is no current registration scheme, it is not clear exactly how many are operating in Brighton and Hove, but last summer, the council estimated that the figure may be as high as 5,000.
“This is a wild west issue. It’s one of those things that the law hasn’t really caught up with,” says Cllr Williams.
It is too early to tell whether Brighton’s sweeping action to tackle the city’s temporary accommodation crisis will pay off, but there are encouraging signs. For example, the number of people placed in temporary housing in neighbouring Eastbourne has fallen by a quarter, from a high of 198 in September 2025 to 143 in April. This is partly thanks to BHCC’s interim policy to use a fifth of the council’s empty properties as temporary housing for vulnerable families in overcrowded accommodation.
But just like Eastbourne, Brighton’s housing issues can be boiled down to the fact that demand for social housing far outweighs supply. The irony of the situation is not lost on Cllr Williams.
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“It’s silly, isn’t it, that we’re buying ex-council homes back because the lack of council homes is making people homeless,” she says. “It seems like a really bonkers state.”
But Cllr Williams vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure that everyone has a safe and good-quality home, adding: “I’m very keen on channelling as much money as is about.
“Because I think for me, everything else is lovely to have, but if you haven’t got a roof over your head, what is the point of anything else, to be honest?”
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