Northstowe is a new town with a rich history just 30 minutes from Cambridge.

A thriving, inclusive, community has developed in Northstowe as people create groups, events, and businesses to support each other, demonstrating their enterprising spirit and joy in creating a new place to live and flourish. 

Northstowe is being developed as a green community in every sense. A third of the site will be public open space, with great connections making it easy to enjoy the Cambridgeshire countryside on your doorstep. 
 
It will be a low carbon development, with a dedicated public transport system, designed to minimise car usage, with walking, cycling and bus routes, plus plenty of electric vehicle charging points. 

Once complete, Northstowe will have around 10,000 homes in an area of 540 hectares with lakes, parks, a town centre, schools, sports facilities, community facilities, and business space. 
 
One of the most significant new communities in the UK, Northstowe has a vital role in supporting growth in Cambridge and the wider region while having its own facilities and independent spirit. 

How the town will develop over 25 years 

Northstowe is a work in progress. It promises amazing education provision, leisure and sports facilities, business start-up space, community groups, places to ‘grow your own’, facilities for young people, and space to breathe and think. 
 
The first outline planning permission for homes at Northstowe was granted in 2014. Phase one commenced construction shortly after this. The town welcomed its first residents in early 2017. 
 
Phase one, which includes approximately 1,500 homes and a primary school, was led by L&Q (formerly Gallagher Estates and now part of Urban and Civic) and is almost complete.  
 
Homes England, the Government’s housing and regeneration agency, is responsible for phases two and three as Master Developer. Phase two has commenced, together these phases will include approximately 8,500 homes and a new town centre. 

Built to be sustainable 

Northstowe has the concept of sustainability at its heart.  
Open spaces are conceived to enhance biodiversity, creating green corridors all around that link to the wider Cambridgeshire area. 

The town will support a low-carbon community lifestyle with buildings that use less energy, provide carbon savings and are economic to run. The goal across the site is to achieve a 15% biodiversity net gain. Nearby, at Smithy Fen, a new habitat for farmland birds is being created. 
 
The town will be protected by built-in environmental features, such as Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS).  

Piecing together thousands of years of history 

Although Northstowe is a new town, there is evidence of human occupation in this area over thousands of years from the Iron Age onwards. 

• Tonnes of animal bones and countless pieces of pottery and metal objects were found here during archaeological digs, with evidence of occupation from the iron age through the Roman period. 

• ‘The Hundred of Stowe’ was noted in the Doomsday Book. 

• RAF Oakington was established during WWII and became an Advanced Flying Training School which counted King Charles III among its pupils. 

The site’s past, present, and future are celebrated in a piece of public art called ‘A symbol for Northstowe’ created by local artist Chloe Leaper. Chloe’s mosaic piece takes inspiration from remnants of Roman buildings unearthed in Northstowe, medieval field furrows, the historic RAF Oakington runway, and the networking of archaeological trenches preceding Northstowe’s development.

Read more about Northstowe’s history.