Self-congratulations was in the air on Tuesday night as the senior members of Hastings Borough Council (HBC) met in cabinet to review the authority’s financial strategy. Under discussion was the council’s financial performance as members reviewed the Treasury Management Report. Chief Finance Officer Peter Grace told the meeting the council’s financial strategies had worked well. […]
Debt fuelled acquisition of commercial property by the borough council might be a thing of the past in Hastings. Tonight members of Hastings Borough Council’s cabinet will hear that a government consultation that ended in July is expected to put an end to councils being able to borrow from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) […]
Virtually every Sunday newspaper is reporting that Debenhams might soon disappear from high streets across the UK, with The Sunday Times summing the situation up in its headline: ‘Debenhams puts liquidators on standby’. Debenhams owners have appointed advisers, Hilco, who specialise in company liquidations and who have in the past wound up the business activities […]
A children’s activity centre could soon be built on the former Pestalozzi site in Sedlescombe if controversial plans are agreed tomorrow. PGL Travel, which bought the 138 acre site last year, wants to turn it into a residential training and educational facility. And planning officials have recommended that conditional permission be granted for the scheme […]
It looks like new life will soon be breathed in to the Isabel Blackman Centre which shut down due to county council cuts more than a year ago. It was announced this week that a partnership consisting of Hastings Voluntary Action (HVA), Age UK East Sussex, Hastings and St Leonards Seniors Forum and Hastings Old […]
Hastings Group Holdings, the Bexhill-based insurance giant – and major local employer – is set to be taken over in a deal valuing it at £1.66 billion. The company has accepted an approach from Dorset Bidco – a consortium made up of its main shareholder, RMI, and Sampo, the Finnish insurer. There was no mention […]
Just before 7pm last night Hastings Borough Council (HBC) released a further statement on its position regarding the pop-up Covid-19 testing unit that appeared on The Stade open space at the weekend. *Council fails to say what other sites were considered *Council told ‘all publicity’ was to be undertaken by the organisers *Local community WERE […]
The fragile nature of the commercial property market was laid bare yesterday when a number of high-profile, high street names called in administrators. Among those was the Harveys furniture group. While there is no Harveys store in Hastings its subsidiary Bensons for Beds is a tenant of Hastings Borough Council in Bexhill Road. The chain, […]
Why the collapse of one of the UK’s biggest property companies should ring warning bells in Muriel Matters House… Two years ago Hastings Borough Council’s (HBC) rush to invest in commercial property was described as a ‘ticking time bomb of over extended borrowing’. In the two years since, many voices both local and national have […]
