£4.5m funding for 113 affordable homes in East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough

£4.5m funding for 113 affordable homes in East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough

Today the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority housing committee gave approval on 4.5 million of grant funding to help create 113 new affordable homes across East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough.

The housing committee gave approval for:

• A grant from the Combined Authority’s £100m Affordable Housing Programme of £1,576,000 was approved for 38 homes, 28 at an affordable rent and 10 shared ownership units at Wisbech Road, Littleport, East Cambridgeshire
• Grant funding of £749,000 from the £100m Affordable Housing programme to enable delivery of 15 additional affordable homes, all for social rent in Huntingdonshire
• Grant funding of £2,270,000 from the £100m Affordable Housing programme to enable delivery of 60 affordable, with a mixture of affordable rent and shared ownerships units in Peterborough

In 2017, the Combined Authority negotiated £100m of government funding to create 2,000 new affordable homes for people living in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough by March 2022.  So far, 699 new housing units have started on site to date and 239 homes completed. In total, 1,681 housing units have been approved by Committee or Board. There are approximately 2,800 affordable units in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Affordable Housing programme pipeline. The 113 affordable homes announced today bring the Combined Authority significantly closer to this target.

Since the onset of Covid-19, which has impacted the construction industry, the Combined Authority has been working with housing developers on a range of solutions including offering interest-free loan to encourage them to keep building affordable homes for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and will continue to do so.

The housing committee were also updated today on a 70 million housing programme to provide new affordable homes in Cambridge City to which the Combined Authority has provided over £26 million of funding. So far, 270 net new units have started on site with 53 net new units completed across eight sites. A further 193 are expected to start by March 2021.

Mayor James Palmer said:

“I’m a passionate advocate for home ownership: it is simply not right that so many hardworking people are locked out of the property market through high prices and unattainable mortgages, which is why I’m pleased to see our Affordable Housing programme continue to deliver for the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, bringing forward another 113 new affordable homes.

“Delivering on affordable housing is about more than putting a roof over people’s heads.  Safe, secure housing is linked to economic mobility, health and emotional wellbeing and family and financial security. I will continue to do everything I can to provide more affordable homes for the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, a cornerstone of a prosperous, inclusive society.”