New training hub to be built despite water fears

A multi-skill apprenticeship training hub will be built in a new town, despite concerns over water capacity.

Plans for the National House Building Council (NHBC) Training Hub in Northstowe, Cambridgeshire - one of 12 across the country - have been approved and it is expected to open in early 2026.

The site would provide apprenticeships for about 200 people a year in trades such as bricklaying, groundworks and site carpentry.

Anglian Water had objected to the plans, fearing the site could lead to a deterioration in water and a breach of environmental legislation, but a planning report said these concerns were considered to be unsubstantiated.

The hub - which is due to run until 2036 - will be in addition to an existing NHBC hub in nearby Impington, which it is understood will remain.

NHBC said the site "will deliver skilled, site-ready tradespeople at pace and scale, providing a significant workforce boost to support housebuilding across the region".

Northstowe is due to become the UK's biggest new town since Milton Keynes, with more than 1,000 of the 10,000 homes planned there built so far, as well as a primary school and temporary community centre.

The planning report for the hub said the objection concerned Over Water Recycling Centre, which Anglian Water believed lacks the capacity to accommodate the additional flows from the development.

But the planning report said flows would not be in addition to those which have been "accommodated for within the outline approvals for the wider development at Northstowe".

Roger Morton, Director of Business Change at NHBC, said: "We're not just training apprentices, we're raising the standard for the whole house-building industry.

"Our new NHBC multi-skill hub at Northstowe, along with our 11 others planned across the UK, will deliver quality training at scale in a way the industry has never seen before.

"Apprentices learn in real-site conditions from day one, gaining hands-on experience in the same conditions they'll face in the job. It means faster progress, stronger results and most importantly, skilled, site-ready tradespeople."

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