Brighton shipping container homes begin arriving

The converted shipping containers will provide homes for five years

Converted shipping containers are being delivered to a site in Brighton to be used as housing for homeless people.

The first six containers are arriving at the car park on a former scrap metal yard in New England Road, with a further 30 due by the end of the week.

Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) said the converted containers would provide temporary homes for five years for 36 men and women.

The units were designed and built in Holland for a social housing project.

The Amsterdam scheme failed to materialise because of funding difficulties.

BHT chief executive Andy Winter said it meant the units were available at a discounted rate, adding to the financial viability of the Brighton homes.

The 36 studios, in three and five storey blocks, will have balconies and external stairs to the upper levels.

Brighton and Hove City Council's planning committee was told in April the containers were an "imaginative and appropriate" way to meet a need for affordable accommodation.

The shipping containers will be stacked in three and five storey blocks

In a blog on the BHT website, Mr Winter said shipping containers had rarely been used as temporary living accommodation in the UK but there were a number of examples in continental Europe.

When the New England Quarter site is eventually redeveloped, the units could be transferred to other locations, the charity said.

Mr Winter said the first 21 residents had been found and were preparing to take up residence in about five weeks.

"The residents will free up space in other services that will be able to take in men and women who are currently on the streets," he said.

"There is an acute shortage of affordable accommodation in Brighton and Hove, particularly for those with a history of homelessness."

He said the official number of street homeless people in the city was 43 in November 2012 but the actual figure was more likely to be between 70 and 100.