Chancellor brings hope to new town residents

Northstowe welcomed its first residents in 2017 but will take two decades to be fully built

People living in one of Britain's newest towns have welcomed plans by the chancellor to speed up development there.

Rachel Reeves highlighted Northstowe, Cambridgeshire as one of four areas where she wanted to "accelerate stalled housing sites".

Northstowe has about 3,000 residents but there are plans to increase this to 25,000 over the next two decades.

Some residents are optimistic that the plans could speed up the process of bringing more facilities to Northstowe such as a shop and GP surgery.

'Red tape'

Ms Reeves made the announcement in her first speech as chancellor.

She said "too many important projects" were getting "tied up in years and years of red tape".

The new MP for the area, the Liberal Democrat Ian Sollom, welcomed the news and claimed Northstowe's development had been "marked by a failure to deliver the required infrastructure".

Northstowe has several schools and green spaces but lacks many facilities of other towns.

There are plans to build a permanent community centre to replace the temporary building currently in use and eventually create a high street.

Beth Cope thinks the plans for Northstowe should consider young people

Beth Cope, the town's pioneer minister, was one of Northstowe's first residents in 2017.

"I moved in when there were 150 new houses and I've watched it grow around us," she said.

"We look forward to hearing what will come now we're in the spotlight."

Ms Cope said young people would like to have somewhere permanent they can go.

"We'd love more youth facilities."

Stephen Brewer hopes the new high street has plenty of independent businesses

Stephen Brewer owns a cafe-bar in Northstowe and said it could be "great news" if its development was sped up.

"At some point Northstowe will get its new high street, we don't know when, and I think the locals will hope that it's populated with independents like us," he said.

Firouz Thompson is the county councillor for Longstanton, Northstowe and Over and also one of the town's first residents.

"We are behind on building," she said.

Ms Thompson said it was important to balance housebuilding with demands for energy and water.

"The groundwater issues need to be resolved ... and it's really important to have renewable energy available."

Once finished, Northstowe will have 10,000 new homes and an anticipated population of around 26,000 people.

So far 1,388 homes have been built.