£45M loan from HCA boosts housing site in Huntingdon

Key site near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, to receive £45M to accelerate construction of 4,500 homes.

The Homes and Communities Agency has given a key site near Huntingdon a major boost, with a £45M loan which will go towards the construction of 4,500 new homes.

The investment from the Home Building Fund will help developers Urban&Civic accelerate the delivery of the site by funding the provision of vital infrastructure across the 1400 acre former airfield at Alconbury Weald.

Announcing the deal at international property conference MIPIM, HCA Chief Executive Nick Walkley said: “This deal is exactly the sort of thing we are here to do – providing the means to realise the full potential of development sites and provide the impetus to enable a real transformation in local housing markets.

“Alconbury Weald is a major development of recognised quality and we will work closely with Urban&Civic to accelerate the new housing and community facilities that this site can delivery for a major growth region of the country.”

In addition to thousands of new homes, the former airfield will provide up to 300,000 sq m of floorspace for new businesses within the GCGP LEP’s Enterprise Zone, and a range of community facilities, including a secondary school and 3 new primary schools of which the first opened last year, alongside hundreds of acres of green space.

Housing and Planning Minister, Gavin Barwell said: “Speeding up house building is one of the key measures we set out in our Housing White Paper, so that we get the right homes built in the right places. The £3 billion Home Building Fund helps do just that by unlocking large housing sites like Alconbury Weald.

“Having visited the development last year, it will not only provide much-needed homes, but also space for new businesses as well as schools and community facilities.

Chief Executive of Urban&Civic plc Nigel Hugill said: “The HCA and Urban&Civic are fully aligned from our experience of large sites to our ambition to accelerate the delivery of housing from them. At Alconbury Weald we have brought forward infrastructure spend as a direct consequence of the HCA’s involvement and look forward to working in partnership with Nick and his team over the lifetime of the development.

“The government is right to emphasise the importance of large sites in meeting housing demand in areas of strong economic and demographic growth, as well as helping widen the supply chain for faster housing delivery.”

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