Why Cambridgeshire may look different in 2025

The Prime Minister and Deputy prime minister unveiled new housing targets on a visit to Cambridgeshire in December.

Cambridgeshire is growing. As you travel around the county you will notice cranes and building sites.

And the county is going to continue growing in 2025.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough have been given new housing targets.

Developments in Northstowe, Waterbeach and St Neots are amongst the larger ones that will contribute to those targets - And those homes need infrastructure to support them.

We take a look ahead to a few of the projects that are due to progress in the next 12 months and the decisions that are being made for more development in the future.

Sewage Work Relocation

Before the 12 January, a decision is expected on whether the Cambridge Waste Water Treatment plant will be relocating.

Anglian Water were asked by the government to move from its current site, in the north of Cambridge, so the area can be developed for housing.

It consulted on plans to build a new facility on green belt land near Horningsea, known locally as 'Honey Hill.'

A final decision will be made by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural affairs Steve Reed.

More Solar Farms

If the treatment plant is moved then it would allow thousands of new homes to be built on the existing site

Solar farms are one of the ways the government is planning to reach its Net Zero target.

It has already given permission for a large farm on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire border to be built, despite opposition from local councils and residents and there are proposals for more in the county.

Another solar farm of 3,700 acres is proposed for the nearby Burwell area by Kingsway Solar. An initial consultation finished in December.

Then in the west of the county, East Park Solar are putting together plans for a farm on land west of St Neots which will stretch into Bedfordshire. A statutory consultation finished in October and the company says it is now preparing a development consent order, which it expects to submit in early 2025.

Will the Hilton Hotel open?

Work started seven years ago to build a new Hilton hotel in central Peterborough. It is part of the new Fletton Quays development.

However, the developer went into administration in 2023, owing the council around £17m.

The council then took on its ownership and subsequently agreed, in October, to transfer it to a company who have 'publicly confirmed its commitment to the hotel.'

Details of when it could open are yet to be revealed.

The Hilton Hotel is part of wider regeneration work in Fletton Quays

New Railway Station

In December, a new railway station in the south of Cambridge is scheduled to open. It will be the city's third.

Work on the new facility next to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus has been progressing steadily throughout 2024.

Around 1.8 million passengers a year are expected to use it. It is hoped it will provide a realistic public transport option for people using the hospital site.

Details of a what public artwork on the site will look like were recently unveiled and it will be installed during 2025.

An artists impression of what the artwork at the new Cambridge South Station will look like