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Homes England has agreed a £61m investment to begin the delivery of a new 6,500-home community in Cambridgeshire.
Developer Urban & Civic has secured the infrastructure loan from the government agency’s Home Building Fund to accelerate and broaden delivery of the site at Waterbeach, six miles north of Cambridge.
The loan will fund strategic infrastructure at the Ministry of Defence-owned site, including road, draining and utility works.
Urban & Civic previously secured outline planning permission to create 6,500 homes and five schools at Waterbeach, alongside commercial, retail, leisure and community facilities.
The first phase of 1,600 homes is currently progressing through planning, with early landscaping, archaeology and remediation work underway.
Urban & Civic will award the first £15m worth of contracts from the Homes England loan to local contractors in the next six months.
Last month Homes England told the sector it was “very much open for business” after announcing it had acquired land for 5,000 new homes in the past financial year.
Housing minister Christopher Pincher said: “Building the homes we need is central to the mission of this government, which is why we have safely reopened the housing market.
“This £61m investment from Homes England, the government’s housing accelerator, will deliver the building blocks of a community that people will be proud to call home, including a new primary school, health centre and community centre.”
Neil Milligan, head of infrastructure finance at Homes England, said: “Our investment in large-scale, long-term projects like Waterbeach demonstrates how our funding can help to accelerate the ambition of master developers like Urban & Civic in developing great places to live and work.
“COVID-19 has presented the industry with many challenges, and it’s great that despite these setbacks we can continue to secure agreements with our partners that build on our pipeline of investing in quality homes and communities and support the wider industry in its recovery.
“New housing remains a priority and while some work is temporarily paused, we continue to work to put the foundations in place for the new homes the country needs.”
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