Housing director calls for 'as many as possible' £100k homes
Ben Hatton
Mayor James Palmer at the launch of the first of the £100k homes in Fordham. CAPCA missed the deadline they'd set of getting the first owners moved in by Christmas. - Credit: Archant
There is no estimate for the number of £100K Homes Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CAPCA) is expecting to deliver over the next few years, its housing director has said.
Asked at CAPCA’s overview and scrutiny committee on Monday (January 25) how many are expected to be delivered in the next three years, housing director Roger Thompson could not say.
Mr Thompson said providing such an estimate would be “a real crystal-ball-gazing exercise. It’s dependent on a variety of factors”.
“If you are after a number, I can’t give you a number,” he said.
He was encouraged by the chair of the committee, Liberal Democrat councillor Lorna Dupre, for a “ballpark” number. Pressed on whether there is “a vision” for how many will be built in that time, Mr Thompson said “I think the vision is as many as possible”.
CAPCA’s £100K Homes scheme offers those who cannot afford to buy a home the opportunity to do so at a discount.
The idea is that certain one-bed properties are discounted to £100,000, no matter their assessed market price.
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The first eight £100K Homes were completed late last year in Fordham, and buyers have started moving in.
At CAPCA’s board on Wednesday (January 27), the leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, Liberal Democrat councillor Bridget Smith, called for greater clarity on the Combined Authority’s target number for delivery of £100K Homes.
Mayor James Palmer believes there is a demand for 20,000 such homes.
He said there are between 40 and 50 in the pipeline.
Mayor Palmer said that “we should be as ambitious as we possibly can.
“The challenge is out there to the district councils and city councils in Cambridgeshire to say ‘yes, we will bring £100K Homes forward’ because the demand is absolutely massive”.
He has said the homes are delivered at no cost to the taxpayer by offering “low interest loan funding” to third-party developers who build and sell the properties.
Mayor Palmer said: “The housing market currently shuts out hard-working people who do not have access to outside finance.
“The cosy consensus needs disrupting, to give those who have done everything right a helping hand and a first step on the home-ownership ladder. That is what I am trying to achieve with £100k Homes.”
