11:20 Wednesday 8th June 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
PAUL STAINTON: Thousands of homes already planned for Northstowe, Waterbeach, Bourn Airfield, but we need more. We need to build a town the size of Ely. That’s the conclusion of a report by Savill’s. 43,000 more homes are needed they say by 2031, 10,000 more than are currently planned. This is David Henry who we had on earlier, Head of Planning at Savills in Cambridge. He says the area should go for growth.
DAVID HENRY: It’s an awful lot, but there again we are in one of the fastest growing parts of the country. We have clearly the effect of that all around us in terms of the infrastructure, the house prices going through the roof, and firms moving into the area. So it’s the big question really, isn’t it? It has been for a number of years. How do we respond to that? Do we simply say enough is enough? Or do we say OK, let’s go for it and as part of the leaders of UKPLC go for growth.
PAUL STAINTON: Well let’s speak to David Shaw. He’s a Chartered Town Planner and he worked on the New Town Development Corporation in Peterborough of course many many years ago now. Morning David.
DAVID SHAW: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: So we just keep building and building and building do we on new towns and on our countryside? And eventually we might build enough houses so that everybody’s got somewhere to live.
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