Cambridge City Council seeks £208.5m government grant to deliver 2,200 homes

By Hannah Brown, Local Democracy Reporter

Published: 15:00, 18 September 2024

The city council is to ask the government for a £208.5million grant to accelerate a pipeline of more than 2,200 homes in Cambridge.

The money would help fund 1,100 new and re-provided affordable homes and more than 1,100 market homes.

Cambridge Investment Partnership has secured planning permission for the redevelopment of ATS and Murketts site on Histon Road, where 28 council homes and 42 market-sale properties will be built

The city council delivered the “second largest number of direct council homes in England” last year, thanks to a partnership with the developer Hill.

It follows a 10-year new homes programme agreed in 2020 setting out the aim to build 1,000 council homes and 1,000 market homes by 2030.

A report presented to yesterday’s housing scrutiny committee (17 September) confirmed that there are 516 council homes in the works, with 259 handed over on site, and 257 submitted for planning approval.This is a net increase in council homes of 437, as some of the council homes are being rebuilt.

But the report said: “In the current economic climate of continued high interest rates and increased build costs, the council alone is unable to finance this level of housing development in a financially sustainable way.”

It is exploring a revised approach including a “greater flexibility over the mix of homes”.

The report said there would be a “mixed tenure approach to development” to reduce the “financial exposure” of the council compared to 100 per cent affordable sites.

The Labour-run city council said it will set a target of at least 50 per cent of the housing being affordable across the programme and said the current programme “suggests 53 per cent affordable housing can be achieved”.

At a ground breaking at Aylesborough Close, Arbury, Camrbidge, in 2023, where Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP) is delivering 70 low-carbon council homes designed to Passivhaus standards. From left, Cllr Gerri Bird, executive councillor for Housing at Cambridge City Council and CIP board member, AJ O’Neill, contracts manager at Hill, and SImon Smith, CIP board member. Picture: CIP

Cllr Gerri Bird, executive councillor for housing, said: “Our vision for Cambridge is a place where everyone has a warm, safe and affordable home, and we are doing everything we can to make that vision a reality. We are making good progress.

“We built the second highest number of council homes in the country last year, as well as some market homes which are also desperately needed in the city.

“The sale of these market homes goes some way to helping us with the affordability of building new council homes, but it is getting increasingly difficult.

“We’re looking ahead to how we can deliver more new, high quality council homes through our 10-year house-building programme, while costs continue to increase and funding continues to decrease.

“Just this week we joined 100 other councils across the country in calling on government to help us help them achieve their ambition for a new generation of council homes.

“We want to continue to play a leading part in achieving this ambition, and the proposed new portfolio approach would really help give us the flexibility we need, while also reducing the financial risk to the council of investing in essential housebuilding.”

Cambridge Homes News Planning Politics Hannah Brown, Local Democracy Reporter