Housing minister: ‘Expect stretching targets for housing growth in Greater Cambridge - and possible new towns’

The Labour government’s new housing minister has told Cambridgeshire leaders to expect “stretching targets” for house building - and told the Cambridge Independent that new towns may be on the horizon for the region.

Minister Matthew Pennycook met local council leaders to “reset” the relationship between them and to discuss the government’s plans for growth in Greater Cambridge.

He said the government was “clear” that Cambridgeshire was “an area for nationally significant housing growth” but did not confirm the target set by the previous Conservative government of 150,000 new homes for Greater Cambridge.

And he warned that a barrier to growth was Cambridgeshire’s water scarcity.

He told the Cambridge Independent: “We’re very clear that we want Cambridge to be the site of nationally significant housing development so that we can realise its full potential. But what we want to achieve with today’s visit is to reset the relationship with local leaders and get that dialogue going about what the precise form of ambitious, sustainable growth to the Greater Cambridge area looks like.

“We’re pleased to hear that the emerging Greater Cambridge Local Plan is already ambitious, that it’s planning well above housing lead – over 50,000 homes by 2041 – but we want to put in place very stretching targets. We’re speaking with local leaders today to ensure we find the right approach and we develop the right ambition for the city in terms of what that sustainable growth looks like.”

He added that the New Town Task Force would make any decision about potential new towns in Greater Cambridge, but said: “I wouldn’t be surprised for Cambridge to be on that list in some form or another.”

He said the government wanted to “work with local leaders, local communities” because they would be able to identify the “barriers to sustainable growth”.

“We’re obviously aware that the sustainable supply of water to Cambridge is an immediate constraint on the city’s growth,” he said, but added that Cambridge has not yet “realised its full potential”.

“There is much more that it could do in terms of contributing to the mission to kickstart economic growth across the whole country,” he went on. “So we want to work with local leaders to realise that full potential, and that does mean addressing the constraints around housing, around laboratory space. We’ve got to deal with all the infrastructure challenges that come with that, but it’s important because it’s so obviously an opportunity area to help boost the national economy. It’s done well so far. We think it can do better. We want to help it to do so, working in partnership with local leaders to leave it there.”

The Environment Agency is currently objecting to some large development projects due to the impact on the chalk streams in Cambridgeshire.

Mr Pennycook said: “I don’t think they (the Environment Agency) should be overruled, because we do need to address the water scarcity, the sustainable supply of water. The challenge for central government, working in partnership with local leaders, is how we can address those constraints so that we can take development forward in a sustainable way?”

After the meeting, Cambridgeshire leaders confirmed they had still not been told by the new government whether it will continue with the former government’s proposals for unprecedented development and warned that plans for the county’s economic success will create “significant pressures” on local services and infrastructure.

And they said they “want to ensure ambitions for much-needed growth also benefit and involve local people”.

In a joint statement, Dr Nik Johnson, Labour mayor of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, Cllr Mike Davey, Labour leader of Cambridge City Council, Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, Liberal Democrat leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, Cllr Elisa Meschini, Labour chair of the Greater Cambridge Partnership, and Cllr Bridget Smith, Liberal Democrat leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, said: “We’re grateful to Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook MP for yesterday’s discussion on our partnership efforts to ensure sustainable growth around Greater Cambridge.

“We know how important Cambridge is for the wider UK economy and want to ensure ambitions for much-needed growth also benefit and involve local people. We emphasised how our area’s substantial economic success also creates significant pressures on local services and infrastructure and were encouraged by the minister’s understanding and appreciation.”

Cllr Davey (Lab, Petersfield) told the minister which infrastructure projects needed to be prioritised if Cambridge is expected to meet the government’s growth ambitions.

He said: “From our perspective, water remains a problem, and there’s a recognition that that will remain a problem.

“And the other problem is transport. You can’t have the level of building that is proposed, even if it’s just the existing 50,000 homes in the Local Plan, without it doing significant things to the way our transport infrastructure works.

“We focused on talking about trains, about East West Rail, and about dualling the train line to Newmarket. That is probably our priority, because that can be done quickly and opens up space.

“I think our second priority for Cambridge, rather than Greater Cambridge, would be enhancing links to Haverhill. Around 20 per cent of people in Haverhill work in Cambridge and the journey is currently dreadful. We have to look at that freshly, at how people from Haverhill get into the Biomedical Campus. CSET [the GCP’s busway plan] is only part of that solution.”

He added that the meeting with the minister focused on “agreeing principles about how to work together” and included confirmation from Matt Pennycook that Cambridge remains vital to the national economy.

Whether that means more homes to what is in the emerging Greater Cambridge Local Plan “has yet to be worked through”, said Cllr Davey.

He said he had been encouraged by the early meeting with a government minister, rather than learning about plans “in the Sunday Times”, where Tory housing secretary Michael Gove had revealed his ‘vision’.

And he hoped Cambridge would not become “like Silicon Valley” as a result of the extra development.

He said the question in his mind was: “How do you maintain Cambridge as a beautiful place with great design and as an attractive place for people to come and work?”