The government has committed to giving an additional £50million to the project to move Cambridge’s sewage works onto green belt land.
The total funding being provided by central government to the project has increased from £227million to £277million, breaching the funding cap it originally set.
The existing Cambridge Waste Water Treatment Plant off Cowley Road is proposed to be replaced by a new plant on land north of the A14 between Horningsea and Fen Ditton, known as Honey Hill.
The relocation project is being pursued so that the land the existing sewage works sits on can be redeveloped into around 8,000 new homes and new commercial buildings, as part of the North East Cambridge development.
In March 2019, £227m of funding was allocated to Anglian Water and Cambridge City Council from the government’s Housing Infrastructure Funding pot.
When the government set up this fund it set a £250million funding cap, which it said should only be breached in “exceptional cases” that can “demonstrate a transformational delivery of new homes”.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) said increased project costs and the importance of the North East Cambridge development to the UK’s “scientific leadership and competitiveness” were behind the decision.
Anglian Water said there has been “significant escalation in cost inflation” and now estimates the overall cost of the new sewage works could be between £370million and £400million.
Alongside the £277m of government funding a land sale has also been agreed to allow the early commercial phase of the Hartree development with the £92.1million proceeds of this sale also due to be used on the relocation project.
Anglian Water has applied for a Development Consent Order to ask for permission to build the new sewage works.
A six month examination period has taken place where three planning inspectors went through the plans.
The examination process was completed in April and the inspectors will now make their recommendations to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs no later than 17 July.
After this the Secretary of State will have three months to make a final decision on whether the new sewage works can be built.
