‘250,000 homes for Cambridge is a pipe dream’ says South Cambridgeshire MP Anthony Browne in letter to Michael Gove
South Cambridgeshire MP Anthony Browne had told levelling up secretary Michael Gove that his proposals for 250,000 homes in the Cambridge region are a “pipe dream” - and the city should not be seen as a “cash cow for housing developers”.
In a forthright letter, reproduced in full below, the Conservative MP calls on Mr Gove to “urgently and publicly” clarify the facts about the ‘Cambridge 2040’ project, which emerged in a Sunday Times report.
The report said the Department of Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC) was working on turbocharging Cambridge growth to deliver Europe’s answer to Silicon Valley.
Neither Mr Browne or any councils were aware of the proposals, which have been widely condemned by politicians and environmental groups since they emerged.
Mr Browne, who will switch to fight for the new St Neots and Mid Bedfordshire seat at the next General Election, said: "The government needs to urgently clarify that the Sunday Times story was a leak of a very conceptual discussion about many locations around the country where housing growth could be accelerated and is not in any way a developed or confirmed plan for Cambridge.
“This new pipe dream will not survive its encounter with reality. We are already building more homes than almost anywhere else in the UK, with three new towns being built in South Cambridgeshire alone.
“It is simply not possible to create a rival to Silicon Valley by using Cambridge as a cash cow for housing developers. The government must provide clarity, ensure they prioritise the environmental sustainability and infrastructure needs of the region in any such discussion, and do more to sort out our water shortages before dreaming up a scheme that is simply undeliverable.”
In his letter, he tells Mr Gove: “The figure of 250,000 new homes within 20 years has come as a complete shock to residents, local authorities and indeed to me, given that none of us have been consulted about the proposal.
“If DLUHC officials had spoken with local representatives, they would have been told categorically that development on this scale is completely and utterly impossible to deliver for many reasons, not least because we simply don’t have enough water. This is clearly visible every year when our local streams and ponds dry up due to over abstraction from the chalk aquifer that supplies our water.”
He points out that the Environment Agency has taken the unprecedented step of objecting to “all new major housing developments in South Cambridgeshire due to concerns about water scarcity”.
Mr Browne has previously been highly critical of the emerging Local Plan being jointly drafted by South Cambridgeshire District Council and Cambridge City Council, which envisages nearly 49,000 new homes by 2041. He has argued that figure is well beyond any government-required housebuilding target.
In his letter to Mr Gove, he raises concerns that the “Cambridge 2040” project appears to conflict with previous assurances from ministers that the government would not impose top-down housing targets or plans for new towns in South Cambridgeshire.
The Sunday Times report did not detail where the DLUHC envisages the homes could be built, meaning the 250,000 figure could relate to a broad travel to work region.
But it said the scheme was part of the DLUHC’s “blueprint to fix England’s housing crisis and unleash growth in the life sciences and technology sectors”.
And it claimed officials were looking at “huge expansion” of Cambridge, and seeking to identify “large swathes of land to construct new business parks, laboratories and science hubs”, while considering new transport links to improve connectivity.
Challenged by the Cambridge Independent on the claims, and whether water scarcity had even been considered, the DLUHC declined to comment this week. Nor would it comment on whether the project was envisaging major developments along the new East West Rail line, which will bring new stations to Tempsford in Bedfordshire and Cambourne.
Instead, a government spokesperson said: ‘‘We are determined to help more young families own a home of their own - and that means working with local communities to build more of the right homes in the right places.
“We know that development is only welcomed when new homes are beautiful and built alongside new GP surgeries, schools and transport links.
“Our reforms have democracy, environmental enhancement and new neighbourhoods at their heart and will help us reach our target of one million new homes this Parliament.”
Mr Browne pointed out that should the homes be built in Cambridge its population would undergo a fivefold increase from 150,000 to 750,000 residents.
He said he had already spoken to the housing minister and to Mr Gove, and was now seeking an urgent meeting to discuss the concerns.
The letter in full
Dear Michael,
DLUHC’s plans for Cambridge
Following our phone call on Monday, I am writing as discussed about the article that appeared in last weekend’s Sunday Times newspaper (‘Cambridge to become Europe’s Silicon Valley — with 250,000 extra homes’, 8th July 2023).
The article claims that DLUHC is developing plans for up to 250,000 new homes in and around Cambridge over the next two decades. Whilst you confirmed to me that this proposal is at a highly ‘conceptual’ stage and is one of many areas under consideration, local people will understandably be very concerned about what this means for the future of Cambridge. To put the numbers in context, this would amount to a fivefold increase in the population of Cambridge, taking it from 150,000 to 750,000. It is the equivalent of adding more than the entire population of Sheffield to our small university city.
Greater Cambridge (comprising Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire) has delivered more new homes in recent years than almost any other area in the UK. It continues to deliver new homes at more than three times the national average rate and the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service is proposing to build 54% more houses than the government’s standard methodology calculation under its emerging local plan. South Cambridgeshire is building out three new towns at Cambourne, Waterbeach and Northstowe – the largest new town in the UK since Milton Keynes was built. We are most certainly doing our bit to help increase the national housing supply.
The figure of 250,000 new homes within 20 years has come as a complete shock to residents, local authorities and indeed to me, given that none of us have been consulted about the proposal. If DLUHC officials had spoken with local representatives, they would have been told categorically that development on this scale is completely and utterly impossible to deliver for many reasons, not least because we simply don’t have enough water. This is clearly visible every year when our local streams and ponds dry up due to over abstraction from the chalk aquifer that supplies our water.
We don’t have enough water to cope with development under the existing local plan, nor the Liberal Democrat-led Council’s proposed 57,000 new homes under its emerging local plan, nor the additional homes that East West Rail says are needed to justify its business case.
To suggest that 250,000 homes could be delivered in the next twenty years is, quite frankly, a pipe dream.
We know this because the Environment Agency (EA) is now objecting to all new major housing developments in South Cambridgeshire due to concerns about water scarcity. It is the first time in their history that they have intervened in a local planning process in this way due to water concerns. They have officially classed the Cambridge Water area as ‘seriously water-stressed' and they now want certainty that new major developments will not give rise to a further deterioration of local water environments – notably our rare chalk streams. This is a very significant step from the EA, although perhaps not surprising given that the East of England is the driest region in the UK and was declared to be in drought 10 months ago.
Water Resources East (WRE) is developing a long-term water plan for the East of England. They propose that two new reservoirs in Lincolnshire and the Fens should be built to provide the additional supply needed in the longer term. These are not expected to be operational until the late 2030s at the earliest. Anglian Water will build and operate the reservoirs. They acknowledge that strategic growth areas are anticipated in our region, however they are using a ‘low variant of this strategic growth’, reflecting their current understanding of Local Authority Planning development. They are clearly not preparing for the extraordinary additional demand that would come with 250,000 homes, a vast life sciences industry and 600,000 extra residents.
I have repeatedly voiced serious concerns about the impact that over abstraction from the chalk aquifer is having on our water resources and supplies. Our local authorities wrote a joint letter to you last month setting out in some detail their concerns about the slow pace of progress in tackling our region’s water scarcity issues. Clearly, colleagues at the EA are also aware of the problem. It is therefore very difficult to understand how DLUHC, knowing all this, can think that drastically increasing housebuilding in our area is in any respect a wise, credible or feasible plan.
It was particularly disappointing to hear of DLUHC’s growth plans after repeated assurances and signals have been given by various ministers over the last three years that the government does not intend to impose top-down housing targets or plans for new towns in South Cambridgeshire. Whilst I understand and support the government’s ambition to grow the life sciences and tech sectors in the UK, we cannot create a rival to Silicon Valley by using Cambridge as a cash cow for housing developers.
I would be grateful to meet with you at the earliest opportunity to discuss these issues in more detail, but in the meantime would ask you to please confirm that DLUHC will:
(a) urgently and publicly clarify the extent to which the claims in the Sunday Times article are accurate;
(b) undertake not to overrule local planning authorities on major planning decisions that are currently on hold;
(c) work closely with local authorities, the EA and the local water industry to clearly establish the environmental constraints in the Cambridge area;
(d) commit to always work within these environmental constraints;
(e) make operational water infrastructure a pre-condition for any significant growth in and around Cambridge that would otherwise cause a further deterioration of our natural water environments; and
(f) undertake not to relax or reduce any existing or planned environmental legal protections in order to facilitate an acceleration of growth in and around Cambridge.
I look forward to hearing from you and, I hope, meeting with you at your earliest convenience.
Yours sincerely,
Anthony Browne MP
