Dozens of new affordable homes proposed for former British Sugar site in Peterborough

Planning permission was granted by the city council last year for a new Lidl store and 74 homes to be built at the Sugar Way site, despite concerns that the budget retailer would adversely affect neighbouring businesses.

Worries were also voiced about the loss of the main British Sugar grade two listed building, however, a second application was approved after a promise that 30 per cent of the new homes would be classed as affordable.

This would have provided 22 affordable homes and 52 to be sold at market value.

It has now been proposed by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority that it funds all homes at the site so they can be classed as affordable.

The £3 million contribution would provide 45 affordable rent and 29 shared ownership homes which would be managed by Peterborough’s largest housing association Cross Keys Homes.

However, not all of the homes would meet the Nationally Described Space Standards which is guidance on the minimum size of new properties.

The combined authority’s Housing and Communities Committee will decide whether to approve the funding at its meeting on Monday.

The mayoral authority received £170 million from the Government in 2017 to deliver 2,500 affordable homes across the area, of which £70 million (500 homes) is ringfenced for Cambridge.

British Sugar’s new headquarters in Cyrus Way, Hampton, was recently named the Best Corporate Workplace in the Midlands and Central England at the annual British Council for Offices’ (BCO) regional awards.