Housing developers to be given opportunity to build new schools

Housing developers could be given more control over building new schools in Cambridgeshire, including Fenland.

Cambridgeshire County Council has said it will consider allowing developers, in some circumstances, to lead the project to build a new school in the county.

At the moment, developers building new homes in the county are asked to give money to the county council. The authority can then use it to build new schools where they are needed.

A report presented to councillors at a children and young people committee meeting on Wednesday said in recent years some developers had asked to build the school themselves, rather than providing the council with the land and money to do it.

The report said the advantage of this method is that the developer would take on the risks of the scheme, and that this could “prove best value for money to the council”.

However, it added that this would make the authority a key stakeholder rather than leading the project. The report said this would leave the council “without the power to heavily influence the design of the school”.

Officers said they were proposing that the default remain that the county council delivers new schools itself. However, if a developer expressed an interest in building a school, they could consider the offer on a case-by-case basis.

They added that any decision to allow a developer to take the lead on building a new school would be brought back to the committee for councillors to make.

Cllr Bryony Goodliffe (Labour) said she understood why the county council was considering this option. She said in the past, there had been delays building schools, which meant the money provided by developers was not “anywhere near” what the cost ended up being.

She asked if the county council would still have enough input into the design of the new school.

Cllr Lorna Dupré (Liberal Democrat) also asked if there were national or local specifications a developer would still need to follow if the authority decided to allow them to build a school.

Officers said the details would be explored when individual proposals came forward, but said there is national guidance and the developer would have to comply with any planning permission requirements for the school.

Cllr ark Goldsack (Conservative) said he thought the proposals were an “exciting development”.

However, he highlighted a recent issue that arose over plans to build a new secondary school in Alconbury Weald, when councillors were divided over whether to allow the school to be built without sprinklers.

He asked for reassurance that if a developer was allowed to go ahead with building a new school, any changes to the plans would be brought back to the committee to consider.

Officers said they could give that assurance.