It is just one year since fi nancial close and the i360’s tower build is well underway. Funds have also started to be channelled back into the city, with more than £850,000 paid so far.

Eleanor Harris, chief executive of Brighton i360, provides an update:

June marks the one year anniversary of the historic moment when we reached ‘fi nancial close’ for the Brighton i360. This day a year ago, we signed over 100 contracts with our funders and construction partners, and the i360 project formally started and I offi cially took on the role of chief executive.

For the past year we have been ‘in the ground’ creating our foundations; and off site, we have been prefabricating the steel tower and glass pod.

This month we began to move upwards with the arrival of the barge from Holland which brought six cans and our jacking tower. Today, you cannot fail to notice the i360 tower as it is now literally ‘out of the ground’. Within four days we had installed four of the 17 steel cans - it is amazing to imagine that by September, we will have completed building the 162 metre high tower.

The i360 will be a beautiful piece of world-class architecture and will create a new contemporary icon for the city to complement our 19th Century icons from the past. Not since our Victorian forefathers built the two piers have we had a new major attraction for the city. Brighton and Hove sprang up from the

wealth generated tourism and today tourism pumps £1billion into the economy and the i360 is expected to generate an extra £25million a year for the city.

it is apparent that a few people still have a few misconceptions about our funding. Contrary to popular mythology, no council tax has been used to fund the i360 and it could not have been used for anything else in the city. It seems timely to mention them now.

Brighton and Hove City Council has acted as middle man borrowing £36million from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB), something that can only be granted to projects where suffi cient profi t can be made to repay the loan. They borrow at a low rate then charge us a commercial rate, meaning they are set to earn over £1million a year through the different amounts.

The money the Council makes has been earmarked to go to the seafront – the city’s shop window. It requires a huge investment to prop up the crumbling arches, and it is wonderful to see the regeneration in action already next to our site.

I am really pleased to announce on our anniversary that this money has already begun fl owing to the city and we have already paid the Council more than £850,000. This has included £773,783 in utilisation, arrangement and PWLB administration fees, plus a Section 106 fee of £77,000 to fund transport improvements, bringing the total to £850,703.

One year on: progress for the site and the city