Struggle to make 40 council home development in Cambridge financially viable

Planners are “struggling” to find a way to make a new council home development in East Road financially viable.

Two years ago Cambridge City Council said it wanted to build 40 new council homes on the site of a former garage block that had to be demolished after high winds caused a partial collapse, making it unsafe.

At the time the authority said the new “highly sustainable homes” would help address the needs of the city’s housing waiting list, which has thousands of people on it.

The homes would be delivered by the Cambridge Investment Partnership, a joint initiative between the council and developer Hill.

However, the housing scrutiny committee was told last week that a planning application was still not ready.

Ben Binns, assistant director of development, said: “Officers and our partners are struggling to make this viable for the council or for the Cambridge Investment Partnership.

“We are planning to meet residents of East Road. If we can’t make March then we will do that in May after the pre-election period, to let them know what the next steps may be.”

The garage block on the corner of East Road and St Matthews Street was knocked down in 2022 following the damage by Storm Eunice.

The following year, the council agreed to move forward with the redevelopment, proposing a budget of £10.9million.

A preference was set out for all of the homes to be affordable housing, but a report at the time noted that grant funding would be needed to deliver this.

An option was left on the table to reduce the amount of affordable housing to 40 per cent if necessary to “ensure continued financial viability”.