Cambridge, the city of choice for Present Made’s first community, is a location with a demonstrable lack of market rental housing. Fortunately, we are pleased to see that between 2011-2021, there were 3,100 affordable homes delivered in Cambridge, which on a per resident basis was more than any other city in England.
Between the last two censuses (2011 and 2021), the number of people living in the city increased by 17.6%, the largest rate of increase of anywhere in the East of England, and significantly above the England average of 6.6%. The largest percentage increase was in the 25 to 34-year-old age group (+20.6%), suggesting a strong pull factor from job opportunities generated by the University and other growing employers.
Commentary following the Census indicates that family population has dipped, perhaps due to the lack of affordable family housing. Relative unaffordability of owner occupation has pushed the PRS to 31% of all households versus 19% average across England. Coupled with wage growth, rental growth has accelerated. A lack of private rental stock, coupled with high demand, has also defined the local rental market in Cambridge.
The number of listings in Q4 2023 in Cambridge was down by 23% against the 2017-19 average. Annual rental growth was over 8% from the start of 2022 to November 2023. Local residents will certainly benefit from a combination of the right supply—across multiple tenures—in locations where there is the necessary infrastructure planned, funded, and delivered in tandem.
The problem of inadequate housing supply is, of course, not unique to Cambridge. Across the country, there is massive unmet demand for the triple tenure type model—build-to-rent, build-to-sell, and affordable housing on the same site—which is exactly why Present Made has chosen this strategy as part of its new delivery partnership model. The ramifications of not supplying these types of developments strike to the very core of what this report is about: productivity and economic growth.
Affordability pressures mean that high-potential, young professionals could be priced out of some of Britain’s most productive places, from the Oxford-Cambridge Arc to fast-growing secondary cities such as Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, and Glasgow. The increasing mobility of workers has also led to increased demand for flexibility, with renting likely to play a far more prominent role in the overall blend of housing stock going into the future. Equally, those in more established roles with families may desire the certainty of home ownership. To prevent brain drain and accommodate all of these people, to power up our core and regional economies and thus the country’s at large, we need developments that address all of these different constituents and their different needs in tandem.
For suburban housebuilders of scale, purpose-built rental communities such as those delivered in partnership with Present Made will accelerate the delivery of homes and diversify the mix for UK housing delivery which simply must be supported by any new Government.
It is clear that the current Government’s stated ambitions for Cambridge are lofty, in terms of both housing delivery in the region, and its economic potential more widely. But if we want to truly fulfil this potential, and create other ‘Silicon Valleys’ across the country, we need a holistic programme of housebuilding and developments that satisfy demand for a variety of different tenure types. Only then can we ensure that we are able to retain and attract talent in the areas that can have the biggest positive impact on the economy at large.
