The Brighton Peace and Environment Centre has found a new home a year after a cash crisis forced organisers to shut their old base.

BPEC is likely to be based in a new building bought by the Ethical Property Company, which is promising to invest £3 million in Brighton.

The Oxford-based investment firm plans to buy a building near Brighton station to act as a permanent base for social change organisations.

The centre will add to eight other bases run by the Ethical Property Company across the UK.

Other organisations likely to be offered space in the new building include Friends of the Earth, Sustrans and Magpie Recycling Co-operative.

BPEC had to move out of its previous premises in Gardner Street in September after rents in North Laine rocketed beyond what it could afford.

Since then, volunteers have been raising about £12,000 with a variety of events and planning the new centre with the company.

The original centre had been opened by peace campaigners in Kensington Gardens in 1982 before moves to Trafalgar Street then Gardner Street.

The centre was used by thousands of people for meetings and research, while BPEC workers offered information and help on human rights, environmental protection and fair trade.

The company will offer office space in the new building at more affordable rent levels. There would also be a public resource and information centre on the ground floor.

Managing director Jamie Hartzell said: "We have been keen to invest in Brighton for quite a while.

"There is a lot of activity there and this is an opportunity to give local environmental groups much more of a presence.

"At the moment, a lot of them are tucked away in little offices in the backs of people's homes or yards."

BPEC co-ordinator Rona Couper said: "We are one of many groups looking forward to moving into the building.

"The Gardner Street rents just kept going up, so this should be a lot more sustainable and give us more flexibility."

The company was founded in 1998 and now has 1,200 shareholders. Mr Hartzell was reluctant to reveal the exact location for fear the deal could yet fall through.