Northstowe is a new town that will eventually have up to 10,000 homes, with an anticipated population of 24,400 in Cambridgeshire, England, UK. On 1 April 2021 Northstowe became a civil parish which was formed from Longstanton and Oakington and Westwick, with the first town council elected on 6 May of that year.[2]
Northstowe has been in development for around 15 years and through varying political administrations. Originally proposed to be "an exemplar of sustainability in the use of renewable energy resources and reducing carbon emissions",[3] Northstowe will still have many exemplar features including a Sustainable Urban Drainage Scheme (SUDS) and bus, bicycle and pedestrian only links. The Northstowe site is five miles (8km) northwest of the city of Cambridge, between the villages of Oakington and Longstanton. The Northstowe development is being led by Homes England, the successor body to the Homes and Communities Agency, and the developers Gallagher Estates (part of L&Q).[4]
In January 2008, Yvette Cooper, Minister for Housing and Planning Department for Communities and Local Government at the time, confirmed in Parliament that Northstowe had not been adopted as an eco-town because the 2007 planning application submitted "predate[s] the eco-towns programme",[3] and because it would not be zero-carbon.[5]
In 2012 outline consent was given to Gallagher to progress with the first phase of 1500 homes, a primary school, road improvements and a local centre. The primary school, The Pathfinder Church of England School, opened its gates to pupils in September 2017. The buildings were initially used by Hatton Park Primary School from Longstanton for the 2016/17 school year to allow renovation of the Longstanton school.
In 2015 outline consent was also agreed in principle to build a further 3,500 homes, a town centre, 3 more schools including a secondary school education campus and a link road to the A14, plus a road linking the town to the Guided Busway. The homes in phase two could not be occupied until a major A14 upgrade is completed which started in 2016 and was completed in early 2020.
The first new homes at Northstowe were occupied in April 2017.
In May 2020 the outline planning applications for the third and final phase were submitted for 5,000 homes, consisting of 4,000 homes on phase 3a and 1,000 homes on phase 3b.
History
A lake on the Northstowe development site.
The site covers Oakington Barracks on the former RAF Oakington, a World War II airfield which was used for Short Stirling bomber forces and other assorted units. It was used for flight training until the 1970s.
In the phase one Local Management Study, published in February 2006 it was suggested that a community-based energy company might be formed, owning assets such as wind turbines or combined heat and power plants for the benefit of the town, perhaps based on the models of the Vauban district of Freiburg, Germany, and the cooperative energy companies of Denmark and Sweden. Car clubs, cycling and walking were also envisaged.[8] In March 2006 the site was acquired by English Partnerships who subsequently became the Homes and Communities Agency and now Homes England.[9]
In March 2007 planning inspectors recommended that Northstowe should consist of 10,000 homes rather than the 8,000 originally planned, and ruled that a country park need not be incorporated. The news was greeted with concern by many in the area who feared further expansion in the future.[10]
In the same month Yvette Cooper, Minister for Housing and Planning Department for Communities and Local Government at the time announced that Northstowe would be designed with energy and water efficiency standards up to 50% above conventional buildings.[11] On 13 May 2007, Gordon Brown went further, announcing that the housing on the development would be built to zero-carbon building standards if he were elected to succeed Tony Blair as leader of the Labour Party. In response, local Liberal DemocratMP for Cambridge, David Howarth, called on the Chancellor to allow local authorities to impose zero-carbon standards on other developments too, and to provide a serious investment in public transport for the new eco-towns.[12]
A planning application for the new town was submitted to South Cambridgeshire District Council on 19 December 2007. Plans included the construction of around 9,500 homes, a town centre area, schools and employment areas.
In January 2008, however, Cooper confirmed in Parliament that Northstowe had not been adopted as an eco-town because the planning application "predate[s] the eco-towns programme",[3] and because it would not be zero-carbon.[5]
In November 2008 it was announced that the scheme would be delayed by at least a year due to the Financial crisis of 2007–2010.[13] In March 2008 the Cambridge Cycling Campaign submitted a formal objection to the Northstowe planning application due to the inadequate cycling and walking provision.[14]
In June 2009 the scheme was not included in the first round of schemes to be given the go-ahead because it did not score highly enough for sustainability; only one scheme, Rackheath eco-town, received an 'A' and was approved.[15] In December 2009 it was announced that the scheme was 'back on the government's eco-town list' because elements had been redesigned to meet even higher sustainability standards.[16]
In February 2012 a Development Framework Document was adopted by the planning authority to progress the town. The plan envisages a maximum of 10,000 new homes created in phases building services and facilities along with homes piece by piece, the first being to the north adjoining the existing Longstanton park-and-ride site owned by Gallagher and the second on the former Government-owned barracks. In October 2012, the first phase of the new town was approved by South Cambridgeshire District Council.[17] with completion of the whole town envisaged after about 25 years.[18]
In December 2014 the government announced that the Government-owned land at Northstowe could be a test location for a new government initiative that directly commissioned homes, overseen by the Homes and Communities Agency.[19]
In the 2015 United Kingdom budget on 18 March 2015, George Osborne confirmed the Government's intent to create a joint venture with a private sector partner to lead development on the Government-owned part of the town location. This initiative has subsequently not been pursued.[20]
The first building, a primary school, started on site in April 2015 and the first homes occupied in 2017.[citation needed]
In 2015 outline consent was also agreed in principle to build a further 3,500 homes, a town centre, 3 more schools including a secondary school education campus and a link road to the A14, plus a road linking the town to the Guided Busway. Planning permission was granted in January 2017. The homes in phase two could not be occupied until a major A14 upgrade was completed.[citation needed]
In April 2016, Bloor Homes was named as the first housebuilder for the site with 92 new homes planned in a range of types and sizes up to five bedrooms.[21]
Northstowe was announced as an NHS Healthy New Town[22] in March 2016. A Healthy Living Strategy for Northstowe was commended at the Landscape Institute awards 2018.[23]
In the spring of 2018, Homes England invested £55 million to provide a new road linking the town to the upgraded A14 and other essential infrastructure to allow more homes to be built.
In November 2018 the first phase of the secondary school was started and it was completed to welcome children for the academic year 2019-20. Northstowe Secondary College is operated by the Cambridge Meridian Academies Trust.
In the spring of 2019 Homes England built their new regional office at Northstowe, designed and built off site using modern methods of construction (MMC) to help pioneer new techniques in the construction sector.
In February 2020 a planning application was submitted to build a new heritage centre[24] adjacent to the Homes England offices to showcase the historical artefacts found on site and more importantly during the construction of the nearby upgraded A14.
As of May 2020 approximately 550 homes in Northstowe were occupied, with the Bloor Homes site completed and 5 active housebuilding sites: Bovis Homes with some marketed and sold by Domovo Homes (a subsidy of bpha), Linden Homes, Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Homes as both Barratt and David Wilson Homes brands. Playing fields, allotments, and public spaces were under development.
In 2020 Urban Splash in partnership with the Japanese construction company Sekesui started building the first of 406 homes in phase 2 via modular building techniques.[25] House by Urban Splash fell into administration in May 2022,[26] leaving a handful of homes in the scheme incomplete.[27]
In 2020 Homes England submitted a Town Centre Strategy, setting out the principles for a new town centre to be developed for the town. The Strategy proposes a shift away from a reliance on retail on its high street, and instead focuses on the potential of creative industries, leisure, education, high-quality food and small-scale manufacturing.[citation needed]
The temporary combined community centre and NHS facility, which opened in 2023
By July 2023, Northstowe still did not have a single opened shop. An opt-in survey of Northstowe residents revealed that 76% were either "fairly" or "very dissatisfied" with their local services. A temporary combined community centre and NHS facility, built out of nine portacabins, was opened in 2023. The town's sports pavilion was completed in October 2023, and opened in January 2024, with many users of the secondary school facilities on weekday evenings for a range of sports and activities.[28]
Public transport links
Northstowe is connected to the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway at Longstanton Park & Ride, with a further busway loop through the town under construction.
St Ives is a medieval market town and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district in Cambridgeshire, England, 5 miles (8 km) east of Huntingdon and 12 miles (19 km) north-west of Cambridge. St Ives is historically in the historic county of Huntingdonshire.
The A14 is a major trunk road in England, running 127 miles (204 km) from Catthorpe Interchange, a major intersection at the southern end of the M6 and junction 19 of the M1 in Leicestershire to the Port of Felixstowe, Suffolk. The road forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E24 and E30. It is the busiest shipping lane in East Anglia carrying anything from cars to large amounts of cargo between the UK and Mainland Europe.
Cambourne is a new settlement and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England, in the district of South Cambridgeshire. It lies on the A428 road between Cambridge, 9 miles (14 km) to the east, and St Neots and Bedford to the west. It comprises the three villages of Great Cambourne, Lower Cambourne and Upper Cambourne. The area is close to Bourn Airfield.
The new towns in the United Kingdom were planned under the powers of the New Towns Act 1946 and later acts to relocate populations in poor or bombed-out housing following the Second World War. They were developed in three waves. Later developments included the expanded towns: existing towns which were substantially expanded to accommodate what was called the "overspill" population from densely populated areas of deprivation.
Swavesey is a village lying on the Prime Meridian in Cambridgeshire, England, with a population of 2,463. The village is situated 9 miles to the north west of Cambridge and 3 miles south east of St Ives.
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Willingham is a village in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located in the South Cambridgeshire district and sits just outside the border of the Fens, just south of the River Great Ouse.
Oakington is a small rural Anglo-Saxon village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Oakington and Westwick, in the South Cambridgeshire district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is seven miles (11 km) north-west of Cambridge. In 1961 the parish had a population of 698.
King's Hedges is an electoral ward in the north of the city of Cambridge, England.
The Cambridge and St Ives branch was a railway built by the Wisbech, St Ives & Cambridge Junction Railway in the late 1840s. The railway ran from Cambridge in the south, through Fenland countryside to the market town of St Ives; more specifically, the line ran from Chesterton Junction, where it met the present-day Fen line north of the River Cam.
The Cambridgeshire Guided Busway is a guided busway that connects Cambridge, Huntingdon and St Ives in Cambridgeshire, England. It is the longest guided busway in the world, surpassing the O-Bahn Busway in Adelaide, South Australia.
Longstanton is a village and civil parish in South Cambridgeshire, England, 6 miles (9.7 km) north-west of Cambridge city centre. Longstanton occupies 2,775 acres (1,123 ha). Longstanton was created in 1953 from the two parishes of Long Stanton All Saints and Long Stanton St Michael. While the village is called Longstanton, the alternative form Long Stanton is still in use, for example when referring to the separate pre-1953 parishes, or to the current ecclesiastical parish.
Oakington Immigration Reception Centre was an immigration detention centre located in Cambridgeshire run by UK Visas and Immigration.
Royal Air Force Oakington or more simply RAF Oakington was a Royal Air Force station located 0.5 miles (0.80 km) north of Oakington, Cambridgeshire, England and 5.1 miles (8.2 km) northwest of Cambridge.
Eco-towns are a government-sponsored programme of new towns to be built in England, which are intended to achieve exemplary standards of sustainability.
Hanley Grange is the name given to an eco-town planned for land north of Hinxton in South Cambridgeshire. Initial proposals for 8,000 homes rising to 12,800 homes were published.
Orchard Park, previously known as Premier Park and before that Arbury Park, is a district and civil parish of South Cambridgeshire, England, contiguous with the city of Cambridge. Previously agricultural land and the site of Premier Park a huge estate for Premier Travel who amongst other things was a main National Express operator with housing for its drivers. the area is currently an extensive housing estate with additional development continuing on adjacent land.
Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about 50 miles (80 km) north of London. Its main transport links are the M11 road to London, the A14 east–west road and the West Anglia Main Line railway line to London.
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