Mayor pushes £100k homes and affordable housing up the agenda

Mayor pushes £100k homes and affordable housing up the agenda

Unlocking more affordable housing and giving a boost to the ‘revolutionary’ £100k home’ are among the six projects Mayor James Palmer has added to the Combined Authority’s list of urgent priorities during the mid-year tweak to the business plan.

The Mayor won Board approval today for his plan to push more money into powering up the delivery of affordable homes across Cambridgeshire & Peterborough.  Now £250,000, phased over two years, will be used both to create Community Land Trusts in five authorities across the region and to speed development of the ‘£100k House’ so the Mayor’s team can bring it quickly to market.

In 2019/20, funding for the housing projects will be £166.6k and £83.4k in 2020/21.

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Mayor James Palmer said:

“There’s nothing more important than getting someone through the front door of their own home and the mid-year review means we can make sure budget and activity are still aligned and can respond to opportunity. This week’s review means we can power up our housing programme with fresh vigour. We’ve got a fantastically flexible housing ‘toolkit’ and the Community Land Trust is a win-win model, for neighbourhoods and homeowners alike. It needs to be top priority, along with the revolutionary £100k house. This is an absolute game-changer that we must bring to market as quickly as possible.”

The six additions listed below are now key projects for Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, projects which the Board monitors quarterly.

• Fenland Stations Regeneration – the work to deliver a range of improvements at train stations across March, Manea and Whittlesey and to push for more frequent and later services from these stations;

• Bus Review Task Force – the implementation of recommendations and findings of the 2018 Strategic Bus Review. This includes scoping  possible franchising or other bus delivery models by early 2021;

• Adult Education Budget – responsibility for the devolved funding for Adult Education;

• Community Land Trusts – increasing the potential CLT’s in Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, paving the way for affordable housing ;

• £100,000 Homes – enabling the delivery of the first “£100k” homes;

• Business Board – tracking and monitoring progress in The Business Board’s programme to deliver the Local Industrial Strategy.

The 2019/20 business plan, budget and Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) were approved by the Mayoral Combined Authority Board on 30 January 2019. Reviewing the MTPF and business plan together at this mid-year stage enables refinement to ensure changing opportunities can be seized and that funding is allocated in line with activity and delivery plans.