House building targets raised by government

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner were in Cambridgeshire to announce details of planning reform

The Deputy Prime Minister said councils will need to "work together" to meet new housing targets.

Angela Rayner made the comments as she and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer visited Cambridgeshire to announce a new national planning policy framework.

Every local authority in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has been given an increased target.

The government now expect them to build a combined total of 5,802 homes per year. The previous yearly figure was 4,627.

Angela Rayner and Sir Keir Starmer took a walk around Alconbury Weald near Huntingdon

It wants to see 1.5 million homes built before the next general election.

Substantial home building is already taking place in Cambridgeshire and the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister chose the county to officially launch the updated scheme.

The previous government announced plans for over 250,000 new homes in the Cambridge area. They were heavily criticised by local councils because of the lack of detail on infrastructure, especially water supply.

Speaking from the new development of Alconbury Weald, the Deputy Prime Minister said councils around Cambridgeshire "can combine so it doesn't have to be one local authority against another".

She said the government would work with local councils and encouraged them to "look at where they want to see that development [and] crucial infrastructure too".

Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council already have a shared planning service, and in 2023 they said they expected to have to build "around 2,463 new homes a year" in order "to meet the forecast jobs in Greater Cambridge".

A spokesperson for the service said: "We note today's publication of a housing target for the Greater Cambridge area is 2,309 homes per year. On that basis, the housing target is similar to the figure we're already envisaging for the new Greater Cambridge Local Plan.

"There are nevertheless challenges to delivering this number of new homes each year, and the councils will be reviewing the implications of the other changes outlined today."

In Peterborough, cabinet member for growth and regeneration Nick Thulbourn said the city council was "poised to implement" the mandatory figures in their emerging draft local plan which will go out for public consultation next year.

"We have an appetite to grow as a city and can deliver these additional homes, along with the infrastructure surrounding them. However, we need to take the time to make sure we are recommending the right places for development - which will help to grow our city in the right way for years to come."

However, the Conservative leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, Anna Bailey, said she is disappointed that the new framework did not include more powers to force developers to build once they get planning permission.

She said there are "hundred of thousands of planning permissions across the country that are just not getting built", and added that it meant developers are "still in control of the market and the build-out rates" and they don't want to 'flood the market and reduce prices".