Huppert welcomes £2m New Homes Bonus for city

The £2,085,283 bonus, which rewards communities for accepting more house building in their areas, includes an instalment of £563,739 to be paid in 2013-14 and for a further five years and a premium of £8,680 for building new, affordable homes. The total New Homes Bonus for the county as a whole is just over £2.4 million.

Julian said: “This is good news for Cambridge where we will see huge growth over the next few years.

“We badly need new homes which are affordable for the average family not just the high earners; but at the same time, we also need our services and community facilities to keep pace. The New Homes Bonus goes some way to helping us achieve this aim. It brings government money to the city so that we can spend it where we know it is needed most.

“During 13 years of Labour government the number of affordable homes fell and waiting lists almost doubled; our housing supply was in crisis. Now we have a chance to put that right and give families the homes they so desperately need.”

Cambridge City Executive Councillor for Housing, Catherine Smart said: “We have 7,000 people on our waiting list for social housing and there are even more who would like to buy their own homes. But in a city where house prices are sky high a home of their own is out of reach for many families.

“By building more homes, both for sale and for rent, we can take some of the pressure off and enable more people to have a place of their own."

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