Church Commissioners submit 1,600-home plans for final phase of Ely community

The Church Commissioners for England (CCE) has submitted an outline planning application for 1,607 homes in the final phase of the northern expansion of Ely in East Cambridgeshire.

The latest proposals by the body responsible for the Church of England’s property assets are for the Highflyer Farm North site, which covers 85 hectares and completes the ELY1 allocation in the East Cambridgeshire local plan adopted in 2015.

Affordable homes and self-build plots are included in the housing mix, while an extension to the Chettisham Business Park to the north aims to create local jobs.

Green space accounts for nearly 45% of the masterplan’s total area, including an expansion to Ely Country Park, alongside new play areas, playing fields, allotments and green corridors for walking and cycling.

These new walking and cycling routes will connect the new neighbourhood to Lynn Road and the wider city.

CCE has already secured outline planning permission for up to 800 homes, a local centre, a school and supporting infrastructure at Highflyer Farm, directly south of the site, with 200 homes now built and occupied.

The masterplan forms part of the body’s wider strategic land portfolio, which could deliver around 30,000 homes across the country on church land, of which 9,000 will be affordable.

In 2025, CCE secured planning approval for nearly 5,000 homes and supporting infrastructure.

Since the publication of its 2021 Coming Home report, which called on the church to do more to address the housing crisis as part of its mission to help the poor, the Church of England also set up its own registered provider of social housing last year – Church Housing Association.