£6m project to build 35 new affordable homes in Peterborough village to get people off housing register

Peterborough City Council is releasing the funding to be spent by Medesham Homes - a joint housing venture run by the council and housing association Cross Keys Homes - which will help get people out of temporary accommodation and into their own homes.

The properties, if planning permission is approved, will be in Crowland Road and are forecast to become available from October 2019 to July 2020.

A report published by the council states: “Medesham Homes will provide 35 new affordable homes which will be available to applicants on the Peterborough housing register.

“The provision of new affordable homes will support the council to discharge its duties towards homeless households by providing settled accommodation.

“It will reduce costs being incurred by the council through the provision of nightly paid temporary accommodation for households that the council has a duty to assist.”

Peterborough has been suffering a homelessness crisis which saw families being placed in Travelodges both inside and outside the city, although the council has bought and built a number of properties to help alleviate the problem.

In January the council said it no longer had any families in Travelodges, although dozens of families were still being housed in B&B accommodation.

Meanwhile, a further £1 million pounds of Section 106 funding (developers’ contributions) has been committed by the council to a previously approved Medesham Homes development in Midland Road, West Town, of 29 affordable homes.

A report issued by the council states: “The allocation of S106 money was not requested for the Midland Road scheme at the time of its approval as there was a grant claim submitted to the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority for this scheme.

“Unfortunately, although the grant was awarded, the combined authority’s capacity was not in place to issue grant funding for affordable tenure and the scheme was completed before this was in place.”

The combined authority is the county’s mayoral authority, run by Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough James Palmer.