Anthony Browne MP has said the idea is ‘simply undeliverable’ due to water shortages
Reports of a government plan to build 250,000 new homes in Cambridge have been described as “highly speculative” and “ludicrous” by the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, who pointed to a shortage of water.
Anthony Browne MP condemned a proposal to make Cambridge the “Silicon Valley of Europe”, first reported in the Sunday Times, calling it “ludicrous” and “not worth the paper it’s written on”.
The Sunday newspaper reported that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is behind a “Cambridge 2040” plan which could see between 200,000 and 250,000 houses built in the area by that date, with large swathes of land also set aside for business parks, laboratories and science hubs to boost economic growth.
“I was not consulted before someone floated this ludicrous idea. If I had been, I could have told them it wasn’t worth the paper it’s written on,” Browne said in a statement.
“Any plan to put more than a few thousand homes around Cambridge city is simply undeliverable, as we don’t have the water. The Environment Agency is actively blocking individual developments purely on water grounds for the first time ever.”
He added: “Needless to say I will be fighting it. It would be enormously destructive of our environment and way of life. It also will not happen: there is no water for these houses,” Browne wrote.
The Environment Agency has made objections to planning applications for 5,000 homes in Cambridgeshire due to concerns the additional water supply necessary will “pose a significant risk” to the environment.
Among the development schemes the EA has objected to are proposals for 425 homes north of Cambridge North Station, plans for 3,500 homes at Bourn Airfield to the east of Cambourne, and up to 1,000 homes proposed for the second and third phase of the Darwin Green development.
Browne added: “Making Cambridge five times bigger than it is now is clearly an absurd suggestion – as were the new town proposals that I got killed off in 2020 and the development corporations I successfully campaigned against in 2022. Rest assured – I’ll be pushing these proposals into the same bin.
“I have already spoken with the housing minister, who said that this is a highly speculative proposal leaked from within the department. I will speak to the secretary of state shortly, and tell him what I have told the people of Cambridgeshire – this is just not an option!”
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “Water is a precious resource that is under pressure across the country, and these pressures are being felt in and around Cambridge and East Anglia with increasing abstraction posing a real risk to chalk streams, river, and wetland habitats.
“The Environment Agency has a duty to protect the environment and ensure that there is enough water for people, business and the environment, and we will act where planned developments are not sustainable and risk causing harm to the environment.
>>See also: Cambridge ‘not consulted’ on 250,000-home growth plan
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“We have objected to some proposed development applications in the Greater Cambridge area on the basis that the water supply for these developments will pose a significant risk to our local water environment. We are continuing to liaise with the Greater Cambridge Partnership planning authority and Cambridge Water to find a solution for people and the environment.”
The Sunday Times quoted an unnamed source who said: “It is basically large-scale growth, taking the local plan and putting it on steroids. The idea is that Cambridge becomes the Silicon Valley of Europe.”
Responding to the reports, Cambridge city council said it noted the “speculation”, but that “the city council has not been consulted on these ideas, which we note are described as being at the ‘concept’ stage.”
A spokesperson for DLUHC did not deny the report, and issued the following statement: “We are determined to help more young families own a home of their own – and that means working with local communities to build more of the right homes in the right places.
“We know that development is only welcomed when new homes are beautiful and built alongside new GP surgeries, schools and transport links.
“Our reforms have democracy, environmental enhancement and new neighbourhoods at their heart and will help us reach our target of 1 million new homes this parliament.
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