Homes England has agreed to invest £61m with developer Urban&Civic to deliver 6,500 new homes at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire.

The loan from the Government’s housing agency will fund key strategic infrastructure at the site to open up the first phase of the development.

The scheme will also deliver five schools as well as commercial, retail, leisure and community facilities.

Neil Milligan, head of infrastructure finance at Homes England, said: “Our investment in large scale, long term projects like Waterbeach demonstrates how our funding can help to accelerate the ambition of master developers like Urban&Civic in developing great places to live and work.

'Covid-19 has presented the industry with many challenges, and it’s great that despite these setbacks we can continue to secure agreements with our partners that build on our pipeline of investing in quality homes and communities and support the wider industry in its recovery.’