Saunders Boston Architects (SBA) and Keepmoat Homes were jointly awarded this prestigious four year contract to develop Cambridge City Council owned sites to provide affordable homes enabled by the open market sale of 40% of the total number of plots on each site.
Homes and Community Agency (HCA) funding for the 2011-15 Affordable Housing Programme was secured by the local authority. Developments stretch across 5 different wards with the city.
The overall programme provides circa 250 dwellings across a number of sites ranging in size from 8 dwellings to over 50 dwellings. 60% of the overall dwellings are Affordable tenure. These properties have been built by Keepmoat Homes but are retained and managed by Cambridge City Council.
The remaining dwellings have been sold on the open market. Keepmoat Homes have constructed these homes and were fully responsible for the sales risk. Receipts from the sale of these units have been used to cross-subsidise the affordable element of the development.
Accommodation includes 2, 3 and 4 bedroom family houses and 1 and 2 bedroom apartments, as well as some community buildings. Building typologies include single bedroom units up to large family houses as well as specialist accommodation for over 55’s and wheelchair users.
All the developments are on brown field sites owned by Cambridge City Council, ranging from small garage sites to large parcels of land on existing council owned estates.
All properties were designed to Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH) Level 4. All achieved 30% renewable energy generation. MMC was employed in the form of timber frame construction.
SBA acted as Lead Consultant (Architect) and Planning Consultant. Full Planning Consent was achieved on all 10 separate sites at the first attempt and all within a 12 month period to ensure starts on site complied with HCA funding requirements.