Preston Barracks Noticeboard

We know living in a new neighbourhood can be challenging, and we want to acknowledge the patience and resilience shown by residents throughout the construction process, and the impact this has had on your experience of living at Preston Barracks.

More than 200 homes are now finished, with the remaining 144 due this year. Although some areas are still under construction, the end is now firmly in sight, and we're working hard to complete the outstanding works safely and with as little disruption as possible.

Thank you for continuing to work with us during this time. We'll keep this page updated with clear, regular information so you know exactly what to expect and when the remaining commitments - including service-related ones - will be delivered.

Who’s responsible for what at Preston Barracks?

At Preston Barracks, we’ve a managing agent in place, which means some things are managed by the agent, Livingcity and others by Southern Housing.

Lucy Turquand is Living City's development manager on site and is situated in the Plus X building. Her role includes:

General site enquiries
Reporting any damaged or broken items in communal areas
Any issues in the communal areas
Any issues with bin or bike stores
Viewing, not inspecting, the common parts of the buildings to check condition and instructing any minor repairs needed
Dealing with day to day leaseholder enquiries
Maintaining records of tenancy details.

Lucy can be contacted on 07743 381664 or homex@livingcity.co.uk.

Who's responsible for repairs?

Updates on issues at Preston Barracks

Across the site, there are 139 parking bays, 28 of these are designated accessible bays. These are for the use of residents who have purchased a space.

Car park spaces 47 and 48 (disabled bays) are now available for booking for blue badge holders. For further details on this, please contact Living City.

Some of the bays in the under-croft car park are leased to surrounding businesses and the university, this is in accordance with our Section 106 and planning agreements.

Following reports of anti-social behaviour in the car park, we’ve installed four new CCTV cameras, to cover the car park area and bike store.

To keep residents safe and make sure emergency vehicles can reach The Furlong, we’re working on introducing parking enforcement for The Furlong and the car park.

We’re improving phone and data signal in the car park and getting the EV chargers up and running. We’re working with Living City on the admin side, including how costs will apply to residents with EVs only.

Once everything is set up, you’ll have:

stronger phone and cellular signal
EV chargers fully online and ready to use

We’ll share simple guidance with residents as soon as the chargers are live.

We’ve completed the remedial works and we’re working towards getting the combined heat and power commissioned; we’ve now upgraded the pumps in the plant room to ensure the flow rates between blocks are as they should be.
We’ve asked Switch2 to return to site and complete their remaining defect checks by mid-June. We had to push this date back due to issues with a software update from the supplier. We’ll provide a further update once we’ve agreed a date.
Although Switch 2 won’t take over full management of the plant room until adoption, they're still the main point of contact for residents right now for any heating, hot water, metering, or billing issues. If an outage is reported, Switch2 will assess the issue during your call and pass it to the appropriate team to resolve.
Works are continuing to improve heating and hot water efficiencies, including the installation of a new water meter to monitor potential leaks. Once Switch2 takes over the management of the system, and with the site nearing full occupation, we expect the heat network will operate more efficiently.
Heat interface unit (HIU) servicing is completed every two years. The last HIU servicing took place in 2024/2025 and the next will be due 2026/2027.
We understand some residents are having specific issues with their heating and hot water. ALL residents should contact Switch 2 in the first instance if they’re experiencing supply issues. Contact Switch 2 on 0333 321 2010 – this number is supported 24/7.
Switch 2’s agents will do some basic diagnostics when you call and will troubleshoot issues to try and resolve over the phone. If this fails, a domestic engineer will attend your home at a time suitable for you. They’ll be able to investigate and hopefully resolve any localised issues with the equipment inside your home i.e. the HIU.
If the domestic engineer attends and recognises there’s a plant room issue, or, if they receive several fault calls at the same time, then it’s likely the issue is coming from the energy centre.
The Switch 2 agent will then make a referral to the contractor RGC to investigate the plant room operations and resolve the issue.
Please ensure you contact Switch 2 for any heating or hot water issues and metering or billing issues on 0333 321 2010.

At Preston Barracks, every resident will receive two separate service charges, one from Living City, the managing agent and the other from Southern Housing.

Corrected Southern Housing service charge budgets were issued by the service charge team on 20 March. This has corrected the errors identified. We’ve held a residents’ meeting on 30 March to discuss the errors and hear any further concerns. We’re continuing to monitor this and will send out more updates when we have them.

Residents will continue to receive their service charge bill monthly and should have recently received the year-end figures.

If you’ve any queries about Southern Housing's service charge, please contact us.

For queries around Living City's service charge, please contact them using the details at the bottom of this page, under 'useful contacts'.

Development progress

The latest update on our development programme at Preston Barracks.

Contractors, Landsec and EdBurton are progressing well with work along The Furlong, with external pathways and landscaping underway. We’re aware there are currently some closures, these works will be complete by mid-May.
We’ll complete planting along The Furlong during planting season in September.
Work is progressing well on the internal areas of block A. Completion is subject to building control sign off, which is dependent on Landsec completing the works along The Furlong. We’ll be looking to complete this building towards the end of May.
At 133 and 139 Saunders Park View, we’ve completed the blocks and hope to have residents moving in by June.
All high-rise blocks must be registered with the Building Safety Regulator before residents can move in, in line with the Building Safety Act 2022.
Homes completed before 2025 are now out of their Defects Liability Period. If you’re a tenant living in a home completed before 2025 and you need to report a repair, you should report this to Southern Housing. Please report any issues to 0300 303 1066 or hello@southernhousing.org.uk. Homeowners are responsible for their own repairs after their Defects Liability Period has concluded.

Landsec (formally U&I) are the overall land freeholder at Preston Barracks. Southern Housing owns the head lease on all the residential blocks.

There are five commercial units on site, we own these but are leasing them back to Landsec.
Sainsburys is now open at 3 The Furlong and can be accessed from Lewes Road. They’ve also taken one of the workshops to be a stock room. Their opening times are from 7am – 11pm Monday to Sunday.
Another unit will be a medical centre and pharmacy. They’ll start their fit out in July 2026 and aim to complete by March 2027.
We don’t yet have confirmed tenants for the other two units, located along The Furlong at ground level. However, Landsec have confirmed there’s interest in these and they’ll be marketed from June.

We’re currently fitting out our concierge on site. This is located on The Furlong and will be managed by Living City, our managing agents.
This area will provide a base for Building Manager, Lucy Turquand (Living City).
We’ll be consulting with residents on the concierge facilities and services, to help us decide the services provided.