What are the plans for Cambridge Airport?

A new football stadium, thousands of homes and a railway station are among the ideas for a major redevelopment project in Cambridge.

It was announced on Wednesday that Cambridge Airport and its adjacent land, previously owned by the Marshall Group, had been sold to Homes England and The Hill Group, in a bid to create Cambridge East.

So what could the area look like in future? And how long would the project take?

Marshall Group was founded in 1909 and has been located at the city's airport since it opened in 1938.

It announced plans in 2019 to leave the airport, with thousands of homes set to be built on the site. However, the move to Cranfield University's base in Bedfordshire was deemed "no longer affordable" last year.

Most of the land is currently occupied by hangars and its runway strip.

The Marshall Group had previously sold some of its land for the Marleigh Estate, developed with The Hill Group.

Marshall's chairman Roger Hardy said: "We are delighted to have secured a bright future for Cambridge East through its sale to Homes England and The Hill Group.

"Following careful, long-term consideration, supported by Savills, we have passed the mantle for this development to partners best placed to ensure the site thrives."

The project will be "one of the UK's largest urban extension projects", Homes England has said.

The government said the sale included Cambridge Airport and adjacent land of the combined size of about 700 acres (283 hectares).

It said the project would also deliver about three million sq ft (278,709 sq m) of commercial space.

Cambridge East will comprise of new homes and infrastructure among the redevelopment.

During a speech announcing the plans, Hill Group chief executive Andy Hill added: "Cambridge East is a unique opportunity to create a thriving, sustainable new neighbourhood.

"We are open to all ideas - we want to make this the destination people come to when they visit Cambridge, as well as the historic city."

The Cambridge Growth Company, a subsidiary of Homes England, would work in collaboration with The Hill Group to deliver the project.

Hill said one of the key aspects to the project was transport.

"Our vision is a new station at the south of the site, to relocate the park-and-ride to the north of the site, move it further out and make it substantially bigger - and then link the two by some form of automated transport or light rail," he said.

Alongside delivering more than 10,000 homes and a railway station, Hill added: "We will make sure the masterplan for this site is informed by local residents and delivers what the community wants.

"We've got some fantastic buildings on this site, and we've got some huge hangars... they haven't got a column in them so they would make great venues for music or something else.

"They'd make great film studios, so we want to bring a complete different offering to Cambridge."

Hill added that a new football stadium for Cambridge United was something the group wanted to consider too. The club said it did not want to comment currently.

Marshall Group aims to relocate its operations by mid-2029, with an initial phase of up to 500 homes starting the same year.

Hill said Homes England and The Hill Group were working to submit a masterplan of the redevelopment towards the end of next year.

"We've agreed with the vendors that while they remain on site until mid-2029, we have agreed certain areas of the sites where we can get some early delivery on the site," he said.

"From 2029 through to 2050 it will be full steam ahead, and our target would be to get totally off-site by 2050."

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