Homes England goes to TOWN for Northstowe co-housing project
Marmalade Lane developer to put people and planet at heart of new neighbourhood
Credit: David Butler
Homes England has appointed profit-with-purpose developer, TOWN, to deliver a new cohousing community in Northstowe. Located eight miles northwest of Cambridge city, Northstowe is one of Britain’s most significant new towns under development.
Following the success of its cohousing community - Marmalade Lane - in Cambridge, TOWN’s vision will bring together high-quality design, good placemaking principles, and a commitment to creating a close, connected community in Northstowe. The development parcel – plot 2D1 in the Northstowe masterplan – lies directly to the south of Northstowe’s future town centre.
Earlier in 2024, TOWN undertook a successful market testing exercise, which highlighted a high level of interest in cohousing within the Greater Cambridge area. TOWN is now in the process of building a group of future residents, who, through a codesign process, will help to shape the new cohousing community. The scheme will include 40% affordable housing, together with a range of communal spaces and facilities.
Jonny Anstead, Founding Director at TOWN, said:
At Northstowe, we want to create a place where residents know and support their neighbours, and share spaces and resources to live more sustainably. The benefits of cohousing are clear: it allows people to live happier, less isolated lives, fosters a real sense of community and enables residents to share resources and reduce their environmental impact. And in delivering a new cohousing community here at Northstowe, our aim is to support Homes England in shaping a unique, thriving and diverse community with more sustainable ways of living at its heart.
The project once more sees TOWN collaborating with Mole Architects and builds on the success and learnings from Marmalade Lane, a 42-home cohousing development in Orchard Park, Cambridge, delivered by TOWN and completed in 2019. Celebrated as an exemplar for new housing in the UK, that project currently has a waiting list of over 400 households – enough to fill the development another nine times over.
TOWN has recently published Insights from Marmalade Lane, a post-occupancy report that highlights the impact that the development has had on the lives of its residents and the social value it continues to generate for them and the wider community. This aligns with Northstowe’s ethos of being a place centred around wellbeing and sustainability. A key finding of the report is that the environmental, social, and economic benefits of Marmalade Lane collectively generate over a million pounds in social value.
Matthew Brown, Head of Development at Homes England, also commented:
Homes England is committed to making Northstowe a vibrant and successful place. A key component of this will be to provide a diverse range of housing types and tenures. Building on our existing Market and Affordable Homes - including Northstowe Discount Market Sale Homes for first-time buyers - cohousing will make a valuable contribution to this mix.
Appointing TOWN is a great next step in Northstowe’s journey, and we’ll be working to support the developer in bringing forward proposals for an exciting housing development which champions community at its core.
Homes England is master developer for phases 2 and 3, the final phases of Northstowe. Over the next 20 years, Northstowe will be transformed into a thriving community of around 10,000 new homes and approximately 25,000 people. TOWN is committed to supporting Homes England and its local partners in realising this long-term vision for the new town.
For updates on the proposals, or to enquire about potential future homes, visit: https://www.wearetown.co.uk/projects/northstowe/
ENDS
Contact Information
For information on Northstowe, please contact Emily McGowan-Phoenix (07778 600 432) or Stephen Sanders (07747 425 025) at PR Agency One: northstowe@pragencyone.co.uk
Notes to editors
About Northstowe
Northstowe is a major residential-led development eight miles northwest of Cambridge City. Phases 2 and 3, the final phases of development, are by Homes England. Over the next 20 years, the former RAF airfield site and surrounding land will be transformed into a thriving new town community of around 25,000 people, featuring 10,000 new homes, multiple high-quality community facilities, all carefully knitted together with natural assets and a new town centre.
L&Q has delivered phase one, which features 1,500 homes, new primary school sports facilities, connections to the emerging town via road, cycle and walking and an amenity lake. It is almost complete – thousands of people already call Northstowe home, with schools in use, a thriving level of grassroots community activity, and a new Town Council.
Homes England is responsible for Phases 2 and 3 and has secured planning permission for the town centre phase (Phase Two), which includes 3,500 homes and permission to provide shops, cafes, and various facilities. Additionally, Homes England has prepared the former brownfield MoD land, involving extensive clearing and remediation efforts to ready it for development, and provided essential infrastructure to support homes and facilities in Phases Two and Three. This includes access roads, drainage provision (including amenity waterparks), cycleways and walkways, plus land and funding for the Education Campus, catering to students for nursery through to sixth form, along with adjoining sports facilities like cricket, rugby, and football pitches.
About Homes England:
Homes England is the government’s homes and regeneration agency. We drive the creation of more high-quality homes and thriving places so that everyone – no matter their background – has a place to live and thrive. We work in partnership with thousands of public and private bodies including local authorities, home builders, developers, affordable housing providers, commercial real estate companies and financial institutions to make this happen.
TOWN
TOWN delivers homes and neighbourhoods that improve people’s quality of life, enable more sustainable ways of living and improve the wider places they are part of. TOWN’s first completed scheme, Marmalade Lane Cohousing in Cambridge, won numerous awards including the inaugural RICS award for Social Impact and the prestigious 2020 RTPI Silver Jubilee Cup, and is widely recognised as a pioneering example of community-led, developer-enabled placemaking.