Lib Dems take action on housing mix

Cambridge Liberal Democrats have taken action to ensure the right mix of housing in the city in the future.

They have agreed to set limits on the different sizes of housing in urban extensions in a bid to meet future need and support the development of sustainable communities.

"Residents have expressed concern about the tendency of developers to

build a predominance of small flats," said Cambridge City Council leader, Cllr Ian Nimmo-Smith. "This new planning policy will guide housing associations and private developers to provide the right mix of housing."

The policy, backed by members of the council's environment scrutiny committee yesterday (Tuesday) is based on the recently published Strategic Housing Market Assessment which looked at people's needs, household sizes, and incomes.

It helped to identify the proportions of households that were looking

for "affordable" housing - social rented housing or shared equity properties.

The study found that people want housing which provides additional space over and above their immediate needs, and that there will

be significant growth in the numbers of children, teenagers, and adults of

working age in the city over the next decade.

As a result the new policy sets a cap of 10 per cent on the amount of one bedroom housing. This will mean that the new housing areas will have the

flexibility that is required in the long run to meet changing needs

without people having to move out of the area.

At the other end of the scale there would be a maximum of 30 per cent of larger houses with four or more bedrooms.