The Brighton i360’s £51 million debt will cost the taxpayer hundreds of pounds each – and the council will be paying its loan back until 2041.

Brighton and Hove City Council will be forced to pay back over £2 million a year to pay off the remaining debt left from its deal to part-finance the i360 in 2014.

Now, the council says it will be paying £1 million more a year than it had in previous years to pay off the debt – and will be doing so for nearly two decades.

In 2014, councillors voted to approve a £36.2 million loan for the i360 from the Government's Public Works Land Board (PWLB).

At present, the overall outstanding debt is £51.04 million.

Brighton and Hove City Council made “bad debt” provisions for £18.9 million of the debt, meaning it assumes it will lose this money. Taking this into account, this leaves a further £32.14 million in outstanding debt.

The council will now need to repay £2.2 million a year every year until the 2040/41 financial year. The figure is £1 million a year more than they had previously been paying back.

The Argus calculated that, based on the entire population in the 2021 census, the i360's £51.04 million debt will cost each person in the city £184.19.

Using the number of people over the age of 16 in the city in the 2021 census, the debt will cost this group £216.85 per person.

In October 2022, The Argus exclusively revealed overestimated projections that were instrumental in swaying councillors to approve the publicly funded loan.

The business case estimated that 823,000 visitors would come in the first year, 802,000 in the second, 780,000 in the third and 690,000 in the year after.

The Green-led council, spearheaded by their leader Jason Kitcat, were backed by the Conservatives to grant the loan.

When the attraction opened in 2016, the business case estimations turned out to be inaccurate.

The projections estimated the attraction would receive £11 million to £12.2 million in 2018.

However, according to public documents, the i360's gross revenue in the 2018/2019 financial year was £6.3 million. In the year to June 30, 2021, this fell to £2.9 million.