Greater Cambridge has a housing crisis with the lack of available and affordable housing forcing many to live miles from their place of work. Data from 2022 showed that median salaries in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire were £36,000 and £39,500 respectively7; while in 2023, in Cambridge, the salary needed to buy a flat is £67,478 and for a terraced house it would be £109,1488. Four out of five people also cannot afford the average rent9; in 2023 the median monthly rent for a room in Cambridge was £63010. In 2023, 1,500 families were on the waiting lists for social housing in Cambridge, and nearly 2,000 families on those for South Cambridgeshire11. By 2024 these figures are thought to have almost doubled. At the same time, there are high levels of homelessness in Cambridge.
Although decades of growth in housing supply clearly have not solved these serious issues, other political parties continue to call for yet more growth through the Local Plan. Instead of still more profit-driven private sector housing developments (including misleadingly named “affordable” housing), the Green Party nationally is demanding: a large increase in social housing, backed up by innovative approaches such as ownership cooperatives and co-housing projects; better use of existing housing stock and suitable brownfield sites for house building; and strict controls over rented accommodation, with the introduction of a Renters’ Charter.
Green-led Councils would:
- challenge the policy of accelerated growth proposed in the draft Local Plan, and in the Cambridge 2040 central government strategy, recently retitled Cambridge 2050;
- ensure that the provision of homes at social rents is at the heart of council-driven development, so that meeting the housing needs of those on the waiting list who are most at risk of becoming homeless is an absolute priority;
- reinforce the Housing First initiative, in the light of the high levels of homelessness caused by, among other things, the cost of living crisis, the mental health crisis, and the shortage of reasonably priced rented accommodation12;
- deliver an information campaign to clear up the confusion about affordable housing so that people can understand that it is ‘social rents’, not ‘affordable rents’, that reduce the social housing waiting list;
- lobby the national government to remove all restrictions on how Councils use right-to-buy receipts so that funding can be released for new social housing and the retrofitting of existing properties;
- bring empty properties back into use, setting up a “Redundant Buildings Taskforce” for this purpose;
- replace council houses lost to ‘right to buy’ by buying back properties and letting them out at genuinely affordable rents;
- apply the highest available Council Tax to second homes and holiday-let businesses as and when the powers to do so become available;
- explore alternative housing delivery options to provide safe, affordable, sociable and sustainable living space for young people and other economically vulnerable groups, including creative use of empty buildings and innovative schemes such as Property Guardianship;
- assist community groups and small businesses that are working to help society’s most vulnerable, and assist them in accessing funding and other support;
- listen to the views of residents about local developments and reflect their concerns and aspirations in the planning process;
- tackle rogue landlords by introducing a selective licensing scheme for private rented properties in the city along with an additional licensing scheme for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).