Dozens of new homes worth a total of £20million are set to be demolished after problems with their foundations were discovered. The 36 two, three, four and five-bedroom homes homes were built on a site in Darwin Green, 1.6 miles north west of Cambridge city centre and just streets from the city's university.
The developer, Barratt David Wilson Homes, said "during inspections" of the site it found some of the homes did not meet its "usual high standards". It has since been decided the "most effective course of action" was to "demolish the properties and rebuild them" at a cost of up to £31million.
The massive development has outline approval for up to 1,593 homes, as well as a new primary school, supermarket and library. The new community will also feature a central park with 15 acres of open space and sports facilities. In light of the problems, Lib Dem Cllr Cheney Payne said she “couldn’t quite believe it” when the council was first informed of the planned demolition.
She said: “The buildings are already in place and pretty much completed. To suddenly find they’re not fit to be occupied and actually need to be demolished is absolutely shocking. It’s certainly been quite concerning for the residents who are living in nearby properties, built by the same developer, in terms of what it means for their homes.”
Phase two of the development is currently being built, with the homes now selling for between £575,995 and £850,995. It is believed a number of the affected homes had already been sold, but are not yet occupied, while others are still in the process of being built.
Labour Cllr Simon Smith said: "I will make sure to work closely with residents to navigate this distressing situation. Primarily, I will be calling on Barratt David Wilson Homes to take responsibility for this and provide residents with their records of the soil layers and as-built foundations. Unfortunately, this event reminds us of the risks of deregulation of standards and procedures that were put in place to secure high standards of development and avoid failures that present danger to the public and harm to the environment.”
