Although we accept that the private rented sector has a role in meeting housing need, the sector is failing to provide secure, affordable and high standard homes. Reform to housing policy is needed at national level to
address this, but in the meantime local policy should try to limit the damage. A fundamental drawback of private rentals is that affordability cannot be guaranteed, but depends on the wider market conditions.
We note that “Build to Rent developments should meet the requirements as set out in the Greater Cambridge Housing Strategy (Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council, June 2021)”. At the time the draft of this policy was consulted on we raised concerns which still apply to the published policy. It is not clear how much of the policy will actually be enforceable by the councils and how much will be negotiable with developers. The word ‘should’ is frequently used, as in “Tenancies of at least three years should be offered”, “No- one should be excluded on the basis of being in receipt of state benefits”– does ‘should’ mean ‘must’ in this context? An example we would particularly like to draw attention to is paragraph 12: “Quality of schemes is important; particularly environmental standards in line with the councils’ Sustainable Design and Construction Supplementary Planning Document.” Does this mean that
developers will be contractually required to meet all standards set out in this document? The Green Party
believes all new-build homes must meet the highest standards of sustainability and requests clarification on
this point.
“The policy will require at least 20% of homes on a Build to Rent development of 10 or more homes to be affordable private rented, and make clear that these homes will contribute towards the overall 40%
affordable homes to be provided on a mixed tenure development.”. We call for greater ambition in the
provision of affordable housing. We note that 20% is the standard benchmark given in national planning guidance. Given the crisis of affordable housing in Cambridge, we would like to see a much greater proportion of affordable rents provided in these developments.