Bulldozers have started demolishing 88 new properties on a huge new housing development after developers discovered issues with their foundations.
The Darwin Green estate, located less than two miles from Cambridge city centre, is still under construction and has outline approval for 1,593 new homes, some of which are being sold for between £575,995 and £850,995.
Developers Barratt and David Wilson said in June that they had discovered issues with the design of some homes under construction on phase two of the project.
Barratt said last June that ‘during inspections’ of site they found some of the homes did not meet their ‘usual high standards’ and the ‘most effective course of action’ was to ‘demolish the properties and rebuild them.’
The developer applied for planning permission to begin demolition works last autumn and today four houses were knocked down, with works expected to continue on the site over the next 12 weeks.
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Initially, the developer said that 30 homes worth an estimated £20million would need to be demolished and rebuilt, and the remaining plots would ‘also require work to remove the foundations and any other structures that have been started’.
In documents submitted to Cambridge City Council in September last year the developers said that ‘circa 83 units’ would need to be demolished, however this number has since increased.
The affected properties are said to be worth more than £40million in total. The developers said tiles and other materials will be salvaged where possible, and concrete and brick will be crushed on site and reused.
In light of the problems, Liberal Democrat councillor Cheney Payne admitted she ‘couldn’t quite believe it’ when the council was first informed of the planned demolition.
She said: ‘The buildings are already in place and pretty much completed. To suddenly find they’re not fit to be occupied and actually need to be demolished is absolutely shocking.
‘It’s certainly been quite concerning for the residents who are living in nearby properties, built by the same developer, in terms of what it means for their homes.’
In the letter to residents in June, the developers said that ‘some of the properties which require demolition had been reserved by our customers’.
It is believed a number of the affected homes had already been sold, but are not yet occupied. Some of the affected homes are also still in the process of being built.
When completed, the Darwin Green estate will be made up of around 1,500 homes.
The new community is also expected to feature a central park, with 15-acres of open space, and sports facilities as well as a new primary school, supermarket and library.
A spokesman for Barratt David Wilson Homes Cambridgeshire said last June it was a ‘small number of unoccupied properties’ that did not meet ‘our usual high standards.’
They said: ‘As a five-star house builder we have an extensive quality assurance process and during inspections we found that a small number of unoccupied properties at our Darwin Green development did not meet our usual high standards.
‘Unfortunately, the most effective course of action at this stage is to demolish the properties and rebuild them.
‘We have apologised to the customers affected and understand their frustrations, but we are doing all that we can to lessen the impact of this for them.
‘The most important thing is that the homes we build for our customers are of the highest quality possible and this means spotting and mistakes and putting them right, which is what we are doing here.’
Local Councillor Cheney Payne described the news as ‘absolutely shocking’ at the time and told local paper she ‘couldn’t quite believe it.’
In June, MailOnline spoke to neighbours living next to the 36 houses which were first listed for demolition, and they spoke of their fears that their homes might also have to be knocked down.
Software engineer Caner Altinbasak, 43, who has lived for nearly three years on the development with his wife and two children in a £700,000 four bedroom house, said at the time: ‘I am worried that the same design mistake might have happened to our house as well.
‘It is worrying that these affected houses seem to have passed various tests until nearly the point when keys were going to be handed to owners.
‘That makes me worry that our house might have passed 100 per cent of checks during the building process, but could now be found faulty.’
Also speaking in June was software architect Eyal Lantzman, 42, who lives with his wife and three children. He said: ‘I am concerned about the impact on my property.
‘It would be a nightmare scenario if our house turned out to have the same issues, although we have insurance and I am sure we would be properly compensated.
‘I just want to make sure that our house is safe. It is a concern that it could affect house prices and put off buyers. We need to get proper reassurances.’
Biomedical engineer George Crawley, 56, the secretary of the Darwin Green Residents Association, said in June that he was only the sixth person to move onto the development in 2019 when he took on his first floor flat.
He said: ‘It is a wonderful community. There are lots of professors, academics and lecturers. The joke is that the list of people without a PhD is shorter than those with one.
‘I am very concerned for people who were in the process of buying these houses. Some have bought furniture, and stopped leases on existing houses, to get ready to move in.
‘Now they have been let down. Some are hanging on another year for their houses to be ready while others are having to buy elsewhere.’
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