Glen Richardson of Carter Jonas, explores how the Cambridgeshire district of East Barnwell shows that using land more intensively can deliver affordable homes, stronger services, and better places.

High density sometimes has an image problem. It is often presented as the point at which development becomes excessive: more homes, taller buildings, less space and greater pressure on local services. Yet poorly designed low-density development can see less efficient use of land, entrenchment of car dependence, and leave shops and community facilities without enough people to sustain them. But instead of regarding density as a problem, it is better to ask what it can achieve.

Centre for Cities’ report ‘Flat Britain: The urban density gap and how to close it’ estimates that British urban cores have a density gap of at least 2.3 million homes compared with similar cities in France and Japan. It identifies the missing form not as towers, but as mid-rise apartments of four to nine storeys.

Density as a tool, not an objective

The test of good density is whether the additional homes support usable open space, safe streets, local services and a mix of homes that meets local need.

More residents means more footfall for shops and services. Streets benefit from more natural surveillance, and higher-density development can make more efficient use of infrastructure.

However, higher density needs careful masterplanning: parking must be handled well; private and shared amenity should be planned together; building heights should respond to their role in the townscape; and ground floor spaces matter because they provide outside and community space for more residents.

Density also has a placemaking role. In a low-density suburb, a denser local centre can create hierarchy, identity and orientation. It can act as a landmark and a node: the place where routes meet, services cluster and public life becomes more visible.

From 18 homes to 120 homes

East Barnwell, a part of Cambridge for which Carter Jonas prepared the regeneration strategy in 2022, provides an emerging case study in how carefully planned increases in density can support regeneration.  

Before redevelopment, the local centre comprised ageing shops, 18 outdated flats, garages and fragmented areas of open space. Despite having been identified for regeneration in the 2006 Local Plan, comprehensive redevelopment did not begin until 2025. 

The regeneration strategy, now being delivered on the ground, increases the number of homes from 18 to 120 in the local centre of East Barnwell. All are affordable council homes, including
48 for social rent and 72 available at around 80% of market rents. The buildings range from three to six storeys and sit alongside a new community centre, library, pre-school, cafe and commercial units.

That uplift creates the capacity for substantially more affordable housing while supporting the regeneration of the local centre. Furthermore, the additional residents will support the new commercial and community uses. In this instance, greater density helps support three objectives: meeting housing need, underpinning local services and giving the centre a stronger identity.

The built form is significant: East Barnwell is not simply adding more homes to a suburb; it is creating a place that feels more like a town centre, with enough height and enclosure to frame Barnwell Road, mark an important junction and give the neighbourhood a stronger civic heart.

This is particularly important in Cambridge, where housing costs make it difficult for many people who work in the city to live locally. Affordable homes within an existing neighbourhood can help retain families and key workers while reducing longer commutes.

Flats, families & market reality

East Barnwell also points to a wider issue: much urban density is delivered through flats. Family demand can often favour houses, while confidence has been tested by concerns about ground rents, service charges, cladding and building management.

East Barnwell is different because it is 100% affordable council housing in a rebuilt local centre, rather than a market-led apartment scheme. But if policy expects more urban density, leasehold reform, building safety regulation and family-friendly space standards will all play an important role in ensuring flats are attractive, practical homes.

Working harder with less space

The most instructive part of East Barnwell is not the housing numbers, but what happens between the buildings.

The local centre masterplan replaces fragmented and underused land with a central square and landscaped park. Buildings frame the public realm and provide active ground-floor uses. The scheme provides clearer walking and cycling routes and vehicle parking has been reduced. The scheme adds 92 new trees and is designed to achieve 20% biodiversity net gain.

Housing quality has not been treated as the price of density. Around 90% of the homes are dual aspect and the development is gas free and includes air source heat pumps, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, solar panels and green roofs for new buildings. The scheme demonstrates how a more intensive use of land alongside stronger environmental performance and more coherent open space.

The quantity of open space is only one measure of amenity. A leftover grass verge may add to a measure of open space while contributing little to daily life; a well-overlooked, connected and purposeful public space can offer greater social value.

Community is part of the design

Achieving higher density also depends on trust between residents and the local authority. Residents are more likely to accept substantial change when they can see what it provides in return and when their aspirations and suggestions influence the scheme.

Engagement on the regeneration strategy at East Barnwell began in 2019 and included workshops, drop-in events and discussions with residents, local organisations, businesses and existing tenants. Much of this occurred through the Covid pandemic in 2020-21. 

Concerns about open space and the operation of shops during construction shaped the response. The landscape was reorganised to be more useful, and a planning condition secured a strategy for temporary commercial provision. In June 2024, Cambridge City Council’s planning committee approved the scheme unanimously.

A practical model for urban growth

The existing National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), asks planning authorities to make efficient use of land and the Government’s proposed revisions go further, supporting urban and suburban densification and minimum densities in well-connected locations. Delivery will still depend on local judgement, design capability and viable partnership models.

East Barnwell is being delivered through the Cambridge Investment Partnership. The partnership between Cambridge City Council and The Hill Group, with Carter Jonas acting as planning adviser. The model combines public-sector land and knowledge of local need with private-sector development experience and expertise.

Not every site being delivered by the Cambridge Investment Partnership has the same site ownership, funding or community context and not every local centre should by default be rebuilt to higher densities, but East Barnwell demonstrates at least one transferable principle: that density is most usefully assessed by the value it creates, not simply by the number it records.

At East Barnwell, more homes will enable a 100% affordable housing programme in the local centre, supporting renewed community facilities, a stronger landmark and a more sustainable centre. For these reasons, the development provides a key example of how increased density can deliver on objectives of place.

Glen Richardson is an associate partner at Carter Jonas