
Partners celebrate high point for hundreds of new homes
Work to regenerate a central area of Peterborough moved forward this week with a topping out ceremony at the Indigo development of 315 Combined Authority-funded homes at Northminster, in the heart of the city.
Deputy Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough, Cllr Anna Smith, joined the developer Cross Keys Homes to celebrate ‘topping out’ – the end of the structural build – with partners Willmott Dixon, and contractors involved in the project.
Key workers, younger professionals and lower income earners are among those who can benefit from this type of housing and the first tenants are expected to start moving into Northminster by the end of the year.
The Indigo build-to-rent scheme received more than £12.5 million in funding from Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, under the £100 million Affordable Housing Programme.
It will provide quality rental dwellings at 80% of market rent prices.
Build-to-rent homes benefit low earners including many people in the key jobs that strengthen a community. The rent is capped at 80% of the market norm and will never exceed that. This provides security, with the added stability of longer agreements, ranging from 1-3 years, being offered to tenants, allowing them to plan the future, while also building community resilience.
‘Intermediate’ rented property provides an important option for people in jobs with lower incomes, like key workers whose presence in the community is crucial for everyone, and others who do not qualify for social housing but would struggle to get secure accommodation or city centre dwellings at full market rent.
Cllr Anna Smith, Deputy Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough:
“As a former senior leader in schools, I remember all too well teachers, even heads of department, living in shared accommodation well into middle age because they couldn’t afford to get their own place. And there are so many people struggling to find good quality places to live who wouldn’t be eligible for social housing.
“Homes at intermediate rent are therefore a vital part of the solution to today’s housing crisis helping key workers and others to find a home.
“It was a privilege to visit Northminster today to celebrate this milestone in providing hundreds more homes for people in Peterborough.”
The Indigo development offers a range of 1,2 and 3-bedroom flats and duplexes across two connected wings. The development will also include two commercial retail units once completed.
Helping to deliver quality homes at reasonable prices is a crucial element in the Combined Authority’s push to create socially inclusive, sustainable, and resilient communities where security, prosperity and opportunity are brought within everyone’s reach.
Since 2017, the Combined Authority has funded more than 1430 homes across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, in both the cities of Peterborough and Cambridge, and in market towns like Wisbech and Ramsey.
The Indigo development forms part of the wider regeneration project around Peterborough’s Northminster area, in which the Combined Authority is investing.
The Combined Authority is helping to fund transformation right across the city, providing strategic support for Peterborough Station Quarter, infrastructure for improved road safety, for connectivity, for active travel, and for education and skills with ARU (Anglia Ruskin University) Peterborough.
Dr Nik Johnson, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough:
“The Combined Authority is playing a central role in transforming Peterborough and our investment in regenerating Northminster is one part of that.
“Getting your own front-door key is life-changing, and our devolution pledge to bring quality housing within reach is creating hundreds of city-centre homes that will change the world for people.”
With topping out of the external structure now completed, remaining work will involve creating the internal living spaces and the finish, ready for an expected handover to the first tenants by the end of the year.
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