Plans for 1,000 new affordable homes have moved a step closer as legal agreements and outline planning approvals for two major residential developments on Cambridge’s southern fringe were finalised.

The Clay Farm and Glebe Farm developments will, in total, provide more than 2,500 new homes, some 40 per cent of which will be affordable. These schemes are at the heart of what is designed to become a sustainable urban extension for the city which will be developed by Countryside Properties.

Clay Farm, situated on land between Long Road and Shelford Road in Cambridge, will provide up to 2,300 new homes, and also include new secondary and primary schools; community, sport and recreation facilities; local shops; roads, footpaths, cycle ways and crossings of Hobson’s Brook to a new area of public open space.

Glebe Farm, located on land east of Hauxton Road and south of Bishop’s Road in Cambridge, will be accessed from the new Addenbrooke’s Access Road and will provide 286 new homes.

Work on Glebe Farm will start on site later this year, while reserved matters applications on the proposed design, layout, scale and landscape of Clay Farm are still to be settled. If all goes according to plan, it is possible that the first homes could be completed at Glebe Farm in 2011 and at Clay Farm in 2012.

electrical industry building news, e-lec.org