The government announced today that Cambridge City Council has won its bid for a £96.4m grant for social and affordable housing and selected the council as one of only three local authorities selected for a Strategic Partnership designed to accelerate council home delivery.
The Strategic Partnership will finance 803 council homes, 723 of which will be offered at social rent, the lowest tier of rent at just 40-45% of the market rate. Winning the bid also unlocks a £584m funding package previously committed by the council to deliver a bigger programme of nearly 3,000 new homes by 2036, 1,400 of which will be new council homes with at least 60% of these at social rent. This programme represents the biggest investment in social housing in a generation and will significantly increase availability of social housing in Cambridge.
The announcement is a strong endorsement of Cambridge City Council’s track record of home building. The council has delivered nearly 900 council homes over the last eight years and has been a top ten council home builder for two of the last three years.
The new homes will all be built to CAM Standard which is higher than national building standards for the environment, energy and space. All homes will be accessible and adaptable and 5% of all council homes will be designed specifically for wheelchair users.
The council has a number of shovel ready schemes, including Hanover and Princess Court which recently secured planning permission for redevelopment. This new funding will enable social and affordable homes to be included in the redevelopment scheme, with work expected to start early next year.
Leader of Cambridge City Council, Cllr Katie Thornburrow said: “This is great news for Cambridge. At over half a billion pounds this is the biggest investment in social housing for a generation. We now have a strategic partnership with government to enable us to go further and faster – and build more homes at social rent.”
The council will continue to deliver homes for those who need them most, and to one of the best standards in the country. This will help our residents and our local businesses. We will be able to provide lifetime homes to national space standards, many wheelchair adapted, which are more energy and water efficient than regulations require. Our careful designs will also provide gardens, playgrounds and other community facilities.”
Cllr Gerri Bird, Cabinet Member for Housing said: “It’s brilliant to see our hard work over the last few years recognised in this way. We’ve demonstrated we can deliver quality homes at scale for our residents. With nearly 1,400 new council homes we can make a significant dent in the waiting list for council homes and ease pressure on cost of living for many, many families in Cambridge. This includes our new developments at Hanover and Princess Court, and Ekin Road.”
Cambridge City Council delivers much of its council housing through the Cambridge Investment Partnership, an established partnership with The Hill Group, launched in February 2017.
Andy Hill, Chief Executive, The Hill Group, said: “This is a really positive endorsement of the Cambridge Investment Partnership between Cambridge City Council and The Hill Group. We’ve demonstrated we can deliver, high quality social and affordable homes. With this additional funding we will be able to deliver many more, including homes for private sale or rent.”
This new Strategic Partnership with government will also enable delivery of the council’s Small Sites Programme which will see smaller local developers also helping to build much-needed council homes.
