Housing

Overview

Housing plays a key role in peoples' lives. A decent home at an affordable price that is easy, safe, and cost-effective to live in makes a world of difference. It needs to be in the right place for work and education, to keep ties with friends and family - and in the community where a person wants to live. This holds true whether a person rents or buys their home: the way it is paid for is not as important as feeling secure, of belonging. 

A telephone, an address, a place to rest and recover, a place to belong, somewhere friends can visit all become more vital.  Homelessness and rough sleeping are the extremes we must prevent wherever possible - but if it's unavoidable, we must work to reduce its impact.

Homes affect our environment, so we need them to make best use of the resources available to us - water, energy, and land - and should help reduce car use, where there are suitable alternatives.  Part of this work involves the way people use their homes, and part of it involves how and where homes are built, and how they are run and maintained.  

Being able to afford a home

Affordability is important to everyone who has to pay for their home.  It is important that the cost of your home does not put an unreasonable burden on your finances, making it difficult to pay for other necessities.

For people who struggle to afford a home to buy or to rent privately, affordable and intermediate housing can help.  This includes social renting, shared ownership and intermediate rented housing and often involves a social or local authority landlord who manages the homes.

The Cambridge Sub-region has a clear need for more affordable homes to be provided as part of our plans for development - both homes on the market which people can afford to buy, and affordable rented and shared ownership housing.  High house prices mean many people are priced out of the market or forced to travel long distances to work, making it difficult for local employers to recruit. 

In the East of England the target is to achieve 35% affordable housing on new developments, to help meet the pressing demands of the local community. Cambridgeshire County Council monitor the number of homes that are built throughout the County, you can view their latest report here.

Cambridgeshire Horizons is working with local authorities, the Homes and Communities Agency, land owners, developers and promoters, other public agencies and Registered Social Landlords (also known as housing associations) to develop housing which will provide sustainable, high quality, affordable homes mixed in with homes for sale and to rent privately. This mixture of homes will form stronger, more inclusive communities.

To guide the principles behind these developments we have:

• Researched good practice in planning for and delivering mixed and balanced communities. 
• Worked with partners to agree a Quality Charter for Growth governing how we will work together and what our overall goals are for growth
• Supported development of a sub-regional Strategic Housing Market Assessment, which provides information on our housing market, and a foundation for further research into their strengths and weaknesses
• Commissioned work to help us secure and deliver affordable housing through specialist legal agreements (Section 106).

For more information visit the EERA website and view thier Regional Housing Market Bulletin.