Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2016, what proportion of the Housing Infrastructure Fund will be allocated to Cambridge; and how many new homes and affordable homes he estimates that fund will provide in Cambridge.

Making housing more affordable is critical to this government’s mission of building a country that works for everyone. The recent National Infrastructure Commission Interim Report on the Cambridge-Milton Keynes-Oxford corridor provided further evidence of this need for Cambridge.

The government will be publishing a Housing White Paper, which will set out a comprehensive package of reform to deliver the step change in house-building that this country needs. To help, the government is investing £2.3 billion in a new Housing Infrastructure Fund to support the delivery of up to 100,000 new homes in the areas that need them most. Local government will bid for projects and money will be competitively allocated to the bids that deliver the most additional homes in areas of high housing demand. Details will be set out in due course.

Cambridge City benefits from the £500 million Greater Cambridge City Deal, which is currently investing £20 million a year capital grant for investment in local infrastructure. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Leaders have also agreed proposals for a Devolution Deal which would give a new Mayoral Combined Authority control over an additional £20 million a year of grant funding over 30 years. Under these proposals, the Deal would include an extra £70 million over five years, ring-fenced for Cambridge to meet housing needs.