Council accused of ‘playing dangerous game’ with social homes in estate redevelopment

Cambridge City Council has said the reduction in affordable housing is necessary to secure funding from Homes England

A council has been accused of “playing a dangerous game” after amending plans to redevelop a council estate to secure funding. The majority of properties on Cambridge’s Ekin Road are set to be knocked down and replaced, with most now lying empty.

Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP), a joint venture between Cambridge City Council and The Hill Group, submitted plans to build 136 homes on the site. The 91 council homes would be replaced with 78 on the estate, with a further 120 built on the nearby East Barnwell scheme on Newmarket Road.

But residents were shocked when they were told the plans had been amended after a “viability assessment” found it would not be financially viable to build 40 per cent social homes on the Ekin Road scheme. It was instead requested this be reduced to 20 affordable homes, 15 per cent of those built.

The council has reassured residents that all of the council homes will still be delivered and this reduction is necessary to secure funding from Homes England to convert the remaining 58 homes to council housing.

Colin McGerty, an Abbey resident and former city councillor, said the change will make “everyone very nervous”.

The 53-year-old said: “How confident are they? They are playing a dangerous game – what if they don’t get the funding, what’s their plan B? I know that they are people who want to do good for the city so I have a degree of faith but it would be good to make sure that we’re applying that pressure. I want to make sure the application is the right one, that’s the only reason I would object.”

He said people in Abbey are “really badly overlooked” and expressed fears the council homes could be moved somewhere else when the full plans come forward.

A similar scheme to replace the flats at Hanover Court and Princess Court was approved with no guarantee of social housing in June. But funding from Homes England was later secured for 72 council homes as part of the 165-flat development.

Cllr Gerri Bird, Cambridge City Council Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “Cambridge City Council has delivered 879 new council homes since 2018, helping to increase the supply of high-quality, affordable housing across the city. Recently, we secured £96.4 million in funding from Homes England to support the delivery of 1,400 additional council homes as part of our longer-term housing programme.

“We have an excellent strategic working relationship with Homes England, and I want to reassure residents that we remain fully focused on securing the extra funding needed to deliver the 78 council homes planned for the Ekin Road development.”