Residents have been moved our of the homes currently on the estate

Cambridge City Council has submitted a planning application to build 134 new homes on a rundown estate where previous residents complained of mould and other issues. The plan looks to build homes on Ekin Road in the Abbey Ward, as part of a joint project with Hill, known as the Cambridge Investment Partnership (CIP).

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The development would replace 91 council homes and 17 private homes with 78 council homes and 56 private homes, including one- to five-bedroom properties. Four of the homes will be designed for wheelchair users, and the scheme will deliver the first five-bedroom council homes through CIP.

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All the council homes will be built to meet or exceed the ‘Cam Standard’, which focuses on low energy use, high thermal comfort and resilience to future climate impacts. Other features of the plan include ‘green roofs’, new play areas, and social spaces. The homes will feature a series of gable and pitched roofs to reflect the character of the area.

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The redevelopment comes after extensive consultation with residents since 2021 and the council says feedback from the community and independent expert advice helped to shape the proposals. The plans come after serious maintenance and structural issues in some of the existing homes, which were built in the 1950s and 1960s.

Cllr Gerri Bird, Cabinet Member for Housing at Cambridge City Council and CIP board member, said: “Doing nothing was not an option at Ekin Road because of the serious issues in the buildings, meaning our tenants were living in accommodation that didn’t meet our standards.

“We’ve worked closely with existing residents who have had to move out of the estate in order for the new homes to be built. This is obviously a major upheaval in people’s lives, but we really do everything we can to help them consider their rehousing options, providing support throughout the process, whether that’s advice, financial help with movers, help with logistics and paperwork, as well as the compensation that people are rightly entitled to.”

While the number of council homes will decrease from 91 to 78, the council said its priority is to deliver larger homes on the Ekin Road Development for people who need more space than what is currently offered through existing council housing stock.

Combined with the new homes being built in nearby East Barnwell, Cambridge City Council says it is investing in a total of 254 new homes across the Abbey area.

A number of large housing developments have been approved by Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council in 2025.

Developers have been given permission to build hundreds of new homes across Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire in 2025. Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council are responsible for making decisions on planning applications in the area.

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In the last year planning permission has been given for hundreds of new homes. Some of these homes are due to be built on smaller sites, but three large housing developments of over 100 homes each have been approved.

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Across these three large housing development sites approved this year, 601 new homes are due to be built. Here is a breakdown of exactly where these new homes are due to be built.

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Detailed plans to build 198 new homes at Waterbeach New Town were approved by the district council in the summer. The homes will form part of the wider new town development, which was granted outline permission for up to 6,500 homes in 2019.

The developers, Durkan Homes and Urban and Civic Waterbeach, said the new area where the 198 homes will be built would be known as Central Gardens East and Denny Waters.

A mixture of homes and flats were proposed, with 63 homes due to be made available as affordable housing. Alongside the new homes the developers said they also proposed to create space for a shop and a children’s play area.

A developer was given permission in August to build a further 292 homes on the edge of Cambridge as part of the wider Cherry Hinton North development. Outline permission was granted in 2020 to build up to 1,200 new homes to the north of Cherry Hinton.

The developer, Bellway Latimer LLP, said the plans for the 292 homes would be the third residential phase of the wider development, and would be called Springstead Village.

The new homes are proposed to be a mix of one and two-bedroom flats, and two, three and four-bedroom houses. Of the 292 proposed homes, 117 are due to be made available as affordable homes, including 85 social rented homes and 32 shared ownership homes.

Alongside the new homes a new ‘local centre’ including shops, a market square, and a community hub is also proposed as part of this latest phase of the development.

Detailed plans for 111 new homes in the Cambourne West development were approved by the district council in September. The developer, Vestry Group, said the new homes would range in size from one-bedroom maisonettes, up to four-bedroom houses.

Of the 111 new homes, 33 are also proposed to be made available as affordable housing, including 16 shared ownership homes and 17 affordable rent homes.

The development was approved after planning officers said the plans would provide “much needed market and affordable housing in the area”.

For more planning notices in your area visit .

Plans for a new city housing up to one million people in affordable homes are "rational and considered", according to a leading architect on the project.

Businessmen Shiv Malik and Joseph Reeve want to build Forest City on agricultural land east of Cambridge, between Newmarket and Haverhill in Suffolk.

Architect Steve McAdam is on the board of directors and said the site "seems to be a very good place to locate a population growth".

Nick Timothy, the Conservative MP for West Suffolk, previously described the idea as "ridiculous".

The proposal includes 400,000 homes across 45,000 acres, as well as 12,000 acres set aside for a new forest, but no formal plans have been submitted.

Mr McAdam's previous projects include the London King's Cross redevelopment and the London Olympics and post-Olympic masterplans.

He said the Forest City vision came from "a very different avenue, a much more disruptive process" compared with usual new town proposals.

"It's not in any local plan, there's no government agency sponsoring it, it's not as though a bunch of developers are behind it or volume house builders," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

He referenced about 1,200 young people who had signed an online petition on the project's website pledging their support.

"They say they are the generation that is worse off than their parents and they don't think it should be like that."

Instead of "just moaning", the team had developed a plan that was "quite rational and considered", he explained.

The entrepreneurs behind the proposals - which includes ex-investigative journalist Mr Malik - say it could take several years before blueprints are formally submitted.

Mr McAdam praised the location, which he said ties in with two government growth projects - the Oxford-Cambridge corridor and the innovation corridor.

The team were in discussions with seven landowners, one of whom was on board and two others who were interested, said Mr McAdam.

"But the key ingredient here is cost and we want to use a community land trust which will keep the values of the land to the trust itself," Mr McAdam said.

"The reason people can't afford to buy is not the property value itself, it's the land it stands on and that can escalate massively, so by controlling that we think we can keep the cost of a four-bedroom house down to £350,000."

Timothy was approached again for comment.