It’s three years since the equal partnership between Cambridge City Council and Hill Investment Partnership was formed and already Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP) is ahead of its target to deliver 500 new council homes by March 2022.
CIP’s successes to date include:
- 11 sites under construction
- 405 council rented homes already achieved planning
- Additional 195 council rented homes expected to achieve planning by year end 2020
- 336 council rented homes started on site
- 895 overall homes in programme
As well as new homes, the partnership is providing community and commercial amenities, which will form an integral part of CIP’s developments across the city, these include:
- Five new community centres across four different wards.
- A major new community hub serving Arbury, King’s Hedges and nearby residents in South Cambs
- A new pre-school in Romsey and enhanced pre-school in Arbury to meet a critical local need
- Seven new shops/cafes/offices that will also provide flexible facilities to meet local demand
- £450,000 invested in public art commissions
- Four new parks being created at Mill Road and Cromwell Road
- The entire Meadows open space is being replanted and landscaped, with existing recreation facilities being preserved and enhanced
- The Chisholm Trail will see a new leg added as part of the Mill Road development, opening up a North-South route for pedestrians and cyclists in the town centre, which has been closed to the public for over 100 years
- £7,199,774 worth of S106 money committed to local schools, parks, sports centres, NHS and The Chisholm Trail
Cllr Richard Johnson, Executive Councillor for Housing for Cambridge City Council and CIP Board Member said: “The formation of this equal partnership has allowed us to increase the pace we are able to design and build brand new council rented and private sale homes in neighbourhoods across the city on council owned land but also secure sites on the open market to deliver larger scale schemes, such as Cromwell Road, enabling us to create mixed and balanced communities.”
Sustainability is integral to the design process. All homes built by CIP are in line or go beyond the Cambridge Sustainable Housing Design Guide, which already exceeds national policy guidelines.
Developments include features such as:
- Enhanced Biodiversity including:
- Green roofs
- Bird and Bat boxes
- Over 200 new trees planted
- Creation of biodiverse meadows
- Sustainable Urban Drainage to future proof against climate change
Low carbon energy-efficient design including:
- A Fabric First approach to energy efficiency though better insulated homes requiring less heating
- Solar Photovoltaic panels to supply power to communal areas and homes
- Battery storage saving energy from Solar PV
- Combined heat and power generating hot water, heat and electricity
- Air Source Heat Pumps
- Electric car charging points
- Significant cycle storage
Tom Hill, Director at Hill commented: “Using the Partnerships’ knowledge and expertise we have been able to bring forward our plans and are creating high quality market sale and affordable properties which will be fully integrated into the neighbourhoods. Community is key in everything we do and we have, and will continue to, work closely with residents and community groups to ensure the commercial and communities facilities we are delivering are enhanced and accessible to all. Through our supply chain we are also promoting training and apprenticeship opportunities on our projects and have a target of 5% of the workforce to be from the local community.
“Cambridge has an acute shortage of affordable homes and the new truly affordable council homes we are delivering will have a positive impact on families and the local communities where we are building.”
