Combined Authority celebrated success in delivering essential new homes to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough as Affordable Housing Programme concludes

Combined Authority celebrated success in delivering essential new homes to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough as Affordable Housing Programme concludes

As of 31st March 2022, the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority has concluded its Affordable Housing Programme, achieving the delivery of 1449 new homes in communities across the region. The programme, which began in March 2017, was established under the devolution deal with the aim to deliver good quality homes alongside well-connected communities close to jobs and public transport.

The affordable housing programme has been essential to empowering developers across the region to include a wider proportion of affordable homes that could not otherwise have been built and unlocking barriers to homeownership.

The programme was delivered in two halves, the ‘original’ Affordable Housing Programme ended on the 31st of March 2021 achieving a total of 37 schemes with allocated funding and 733 homes started on site. Schemes in this part of the programme had £26.1m of grants committed to them and include the five loan schemes originally intended to be part of a revolving fund, repayments from which are now being used to fund the grant programme. The second half of the programme ran from April 2021 to March 2022 and has delivered 716 homes, all of which have started on site. In total, this amounts to 1449 affordable and accessible homes to meet the unique needs of the region. The Combined Authority has therefore fulfilled 72% of the 2000 unit target set by the Government’s devolution deal using little over half of the agreed funding at £56m.

The programme has faced its challenges with sector skill shortages post Brexit and then Covid impacting on supply chain issues. Nevertheless, the programme was successful in delivering many affordable homes on 37 sites. The Combined Authority proactively sought to distribute the benefits of affordable housing throughout the region working closely with its constituent councils, housing associations and charities across the spectrum. Many national and local construction companies have been partners in the delivery of this vision.

All sites in the programme are expected to be completed by mid-2025. In many cases, there has been priority given to people with  a connection to the area to allow local people a better chance of getting on the housing ladder and staying close to family.

Following the conclusion of the programme, the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority is investigating opportunities to carry forward progress and momentum around supporting the delivery of affordable and market housing across the region.