£6m funding for 146 new affordable homes in Peterborough approved

Roger Thompson, combined authority housing director, Howard Bright from Medesham Homes, Cllr John Holdich, Mayor James Palmer, Michael Heekin, Cross Keys Homes executive director of finance, and city councillor Steve Allen at the Crowland Road site

The £6.1 million grant from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority will be spent to deliver 88 homes at a brownfield site next to the Werrington Centre in Staniland Way, 33 homes in Drake Avenue, Hempsted, and 25 homes on land at Crowland Road in Eye Green.

All the homes will be offered for affordable rent, capped at Peterborough City Council’s Local Housing Level.

The mayoral authority, which was set up as part of a devolution deal for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, agreed the funding at its board meeting today (Wednesday).

The authority received £100 million from the Government to deliver 2,000 affordable homes across the county when it was formed.

Speaking before the meeting, Mayor James Palmer, leader of the combined authority, said: “Peterborough needs more homes urgently and the combined authority is here to make an emphatic contribution to the supply of housing of all types.

“We are committed to creating homes people can afford and making grants is just one of the ways we’re speeding up delivery of new homes.

“We’re also developing Community Land Trusts, offering loan funding to unlock new sites and regenerating others. Here in Peterborough there are currently 395 households and 479 children in makeshift accommodation and I’m determined that the combined authority will do its utmost to help all our local citizens find security and get settled into a home of their own.”

The Werrington site is brownfield land with a demolished office building and hoarded up retail units which the Funding Affordable Homes Housing Association – FAHHA – proposes to develop with the combined authority grant of around £3,8 million.

A full planning application will be submitted in the hope that a decision will be made in November 2019.

At Drake Avenue, housing association Cross Keys Homes proposes to use the grant of approximately £1.4 million to convert an existing plan for the market sale of 15 dwellings – with no affordable component - into 33 two bedroom apartments for affordable rent.

If planning consent is granted, completion of the project is anticipated by August 2021.

With the combined authority grant of £875,000, Medesham Homes LLP - a joint venture between Cross Keys and Peterborough City Council - will deliver 25 additional new homes for affordable rent on the Crowland Road site.

The grant will be used to convert 25 homes, which had originally been planned for market sale, to 25 affordable rent homes. The Crowland Road scheme already has full planning permission and completion is expected by July 2020.

Cllr John Holdich, leader of Peterborough City Council and deputy mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said: “There is a real need for additional affordable homes in Peterborough so this funding from the combined authority to support projects which will deliver an additional 146 homes is fantastic.

“These homes will mean that more people can afford to rent a property at a time when rental values in the private market price many people out of the market.

“I would like to thank our partners in each of these projects - Cross Keys Homes, Medesham Homes and the Funding Affordable Homes Housing Association. With their support we can continue providing additional good quality homes to meet the needs of our residents and those looking to move to the city.”