House building at a record level

A record number of new homes were built in Cheshire East last year increasing the housing stock by a total of 2,321 properties during 2017/18. 

This represents a 31% increase in the number of new homes built the previous year. Among the new housing was 655 subsidised affordable homes – representing 27% of all house building in the borough.

Councillor Ainsley Arnold, Cheshire East Council cabinet member for housing planning and regeneration, said: “At a time when so many people are looking for a home of their own, it is encouraging to see the highest growth ever in the housing stock of Cheshire East. I am also delighted that over a quarter of these homes are subsidised affordable housing to meet the needs of local people. This demonstrates that home building benefits a broad cross section of people in our communities. We need the right mix of housing to enable us to both attract and retain people and jobs – to continue to deliver strong economic growth across the borough. That is what Cheshire East is delivering.”

Macclesfield, Crewe, Congleton and Sandbach were the towns seeing the most affordable housing created and across the borough some 375 of the affordable homes were built as housing to rent.

Last year, only six councils outside London built more than 2,300 new homes, contributing towards a total of 217,350 additional homes across England.

In Cheshire East the scale of home building is almost four times what it was in 2012/13.

Editor: With the current controversy over the two new Henbury developments – the impact of all this building on the environment, transport, air pollution and local services should be a cause of concern for everyone.