Disappointing visitor numbers affect Brighton i360
Brighton's i360 is seeking a new deal on paying back its £36m loan from the city council after failing to get enough visitors.
The owners want to restructure the loan and reduce the annual payments from £570,000 to £25,000 until 2024. Julia Barfield, chair of Brighton i360 Ltd, said: "We have needed to make some commercial adjustments while we build the business." The council said it had received £2.5m in repayments since the i360 opened. The £36m government loan was taken out through the city council to help finance the tower's construction. Payments delay Brighton i360 Ltd pays this back to the council with interest, but adds on bonus "margin payments" of just over £1m a year. The i360 now wants to delay making these "margin payments'" until after it has cleared another loan to the Local Enterprise Partnership, which it said it expected to do by the mid 2020s. Ms Barfield said: "Under the terms of our proposal, Brighton & Hove City Council would still receive more than enough money to repay its loan to central government. "It would also still enjoy the £35m total profit agreed to over the 25-year loan period - but with greater flexibility on payment dates." Brighton and Hove City Council said it was not unusual for a young business to reschedule loan payments in the short term to maintain profitability in the long term. Howard Barden, head of tourism at Brighton and Hove City Council, said: "In less than two years of opening, it has provided over £2.5m to the council, money that we would not otherwise have had."