Housing Needs of Specific Groups, Cambridgeshire and West Sussex Councils

Client: Cambridgeshire and West Sussex Councils
Location: Cambridgeshire and West Sussex
Discipline(s):

As part of their strategic plan making, Cambridgeshire and West Sussex Councils appointed GL Hearn to carry out a robust study in relation to the housing need figure, affordable housing and the housing needs of specific groups including elderly and disabled people, people who rent, students, and people seeking to build their own homes, in accordance with national policy.

The outcome 

GL Hearn’s study addressed a Housing Market Area (HMA) reflecting the geography of Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk and gathered relevant data. The report produced forecasts of demographic change to put forward findings and recommendations relating to:

• the housing need figure following the Government’s Standard Method for all six councils;
• the affordable housing need for the study area, including appropriate provision for affordable home ownership;
• the housing mix of homes by tenure, type, and size;
• older and disabled persons’ housing needs including wheelchair users;
• student accommodation to support the growth of the Universities of Cambridge;
• anglia Ruskin people who rent their properties and requirements for the council to allocate sites for build-to-rent accommodation;
• custom and self-build properties;
• and how the housing demand, generated by the presence of a number of Royal Air Force bases, should be addressed.

GL Hearn's findings were presented for each Local Authority in the HMA (together with the HMA itself). This encompassed the city of Cambridge, East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, Huntingdonshire, South Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk. The report also included outputs for the Greater Cambridge area (Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire).

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