A £5.6 Million Community Hub on a 999-Year Lease: A Church Network Wins the Right to Build in a Major New English Town

• Northstowe Church Network won the bid to build a £5.6 million community hub
• The site in Northstowe, Cambridgeshire, comes on a 999-year lease
• Worship will use about 19 per cent of the building
• The new town is planned for about 10,000 homes

A Christian group has won the right to build the first community hub in a major new English town, Premier Christian News reported in May 2026.

South Cambridgeshire District Council selected the Northstowe Church Network to develop a £5.6 million hub on a Stirling Road site in Northstowe, held on a 999-year lease. Northstowe is planned as the largest new town in the UK since Milton Keynes, with about 10,000 homes; around 1,700 are currently occupied. The network’s bid was chosen over a competing proposal from Hindu Samaj Northstowe.

The building will include a Christian church, an Islamic prayer and education room, a hall for hire by community and faith groups, a café, exhibition space, a rooftop terrace and flexible community areas. Worship will account for about 19 per cent of the building. Construction is expected to take about 18 months, with opening targeted for 2029.

Dr Lisa Redrup described the decision as an “important milestone” for Northstowe, saying “spaces like the hub help bring people together and strengthen community life.”

The model is unusual: rather than buying land and building a traditional church, a Christian network will run a shared civic building in which worship is one use among many. The long lease gives security, and shared use spreads costs.

Where new housing schemes are planned in Jamaica, churches could explore similar partnerships with developers and local authorities: community centres, halls or schools on land set aside in new developments, with churches as operators. Early engagement with planners and developers is key, because space for community buildings is best secured before the homes are built.

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