Milestone reached at affordable housing development in Cambridge

The final piece of roofing felt has been laid to officially mark the topping out of L2 Orchard Park, in Cambridge.

75 new homes, consisting of a mix of social rent and affordable rent will be delivered through Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP) and a funding agreement from Homes England.

Thirty of the homes will be social rent homes while a further 45 are available at 80 per cent of the average private rental rate in Cambridge, with the city council as landlord for all the properties.

Designed by architect Mole, the highly sustainable development features two apartment blocks and a row of coach houses, with all the homes gas free with heating provided through air-source heat pumps.

There are also biodiverse green rooves and high levels of insulation to reduce the impact of fuel poverty.

The Orchard Park development will also include improvements to the adjacent open space which with extensive recreational and biodiversity improvements along with a community growing garden, pergola and seating area, trim trail, running track, table tennis table and generous planting.

There will also be six electric vehicle charging spaces, one hybrid/electric car club vehicle and above policy cycle parking provision for 124 bike spaces.

Cllr Gerri Bird, executive councillor for housing and homelessness at Cambridge City Council and CIP board member said: “Our new development at Orchard Park has allowed us to provide a mix of council homes and also affordable rent homes which will be made available to local residents who have traditionally found it difficult to secure, long term homes in the area.”

Tom Hill, managing director at The Hill Group said: “Through the partnership, we have worked closely with local residents to ensure this new development has a positive impact on the wider community which includes improvements to the adjacent public open space to provide a community growing garden and areas to come together and enjoy.”

The Cambridge Investment Partnership was established in 2017 to address the housing shortage across Cambridge.

As part of the £70m Cambridgeshire and Peterborough devolution grant, the partnership had an initial target to start at least 500 net council homes by March 2022.

This was reached a year early and six years on the partnership has completed 10 new developments and is now working to deliver a minimum of 1,700 new homes, with 1,000 being council homes within 10 years, including the first Passivhaus accredited council homes in Cambridge.

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