We have built over 1,205 new homes since 2018, including 879 council homes, across 27 sites in Cambridge.  

We have been a top ten council house builder for two of the last three years.  

Our new homes are primarily built through Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP), our partnership with housebuilder The Hill Group, which was established in 2017. We also build a small number of homes on smaller developments, outside of our partnership with Hill.  

The purpose of our housebuilding programme is to: 

• improve accommodation standards for people living in existing council homes – by replacing ageing homes that no longer meet the standards tenants deserve
• build additional council homes to replace those lose through ‘right to buy’ and to meet increasing local need 
• build different types of council homes to meet wider needs – such as large family homes to help families in overcrowded homes; and homes designed for wheelchair users

We have also built five new community centres, seven new parks and play areas, two pre-schools, one library, new shops and provided £12.2 million of funding to support local schools, parks, sports centres and the NHS. 

Council homes and market sale homes 

We usually build on council-owned land such as on the site of the council’s former depot, or redevelop ageing council estates, many of which were put up quickly in the post-war period and so often don’t meet modern standards our tenants deserve. 

Building new homes at scale requires large investments. On some of our schemes we build homes for sale as well as council homes. The profit from the sale of these market homes subsidises the cost of the council homes across our housebuilding portfolio. This means we can build more council homes than we would be able to do otherwise. 

The mix of council homes and market sale homes we build on each scheme can vary depending on what is affordable to the council. Some ageing council estates can cost much more to redevelop, due to aspects such as higher cost of demolishing buildings in central locations, higher leaseholder buyout costs in some areas, and greater overall costs connected with supporting bigger groups of tenants to move. But our tenants living in these ageing council homes still deserve to move into better quality homes, and so we progress with the development but may need to offer slightly fewer council homes on these sites and more on others.  

Planning policy stipulates that 40% of new homes on any housing development should be ‘affordable’ homes – homes that are rented at below market rates such as by a Housing Association or, in our case, offered as council homes.  

Through our portfolio approach to council house building we have a target of at least 50% of the homes we build across our sites being council homes. Our table below shows that we are on track to exceed that. 

Our ambition – council homes and market homes 

The table below highlights our statement of intent for the sites we want to deliver under our portfolio approach, with the support of £96 million from Homes England if we are successful in our Strategic Partnership bid.  

Many existing homes on development sites are no longer fit for purpose. Some are below current minimum space standards and some offer poor design and insulation making them prone to damp and expensive to heat. We have found most tenants are delighted to be offered the opportunity to move to a new home built to far better standards. 

Rents in new build council homes 

Local policies provide clear guidance for setting rents in new council homes. 

• 10% offered at low ‘social rent’ (40-45% of market rents).
• 65% offered at mid-level affordable rent (60% of market rents – often covered by benefits).
• 25% offered at top-level ’intermediate’ rent (80% of market rents) – supporting lower income workers who wouldn’t be eligible for the lowest rates. 

Read more about setting rents in our new council homes. 

If the council is successful in its bid to Homes England to be a Strategic Partner, 60% of our new council homes are likely to be available at ‘social rent’ - the lowest level of council rent.  

The remaining 40% of the new council homes would be available at 80% of market rate – a rent level intended to support local workers who would be unlikely to be granted high priority status to bid for council homes at the two lower levels of rent but who would still find it difficult to afford the high rents charged in Cambridge – such as nurses and newly qualified teachers.