Cambridgeshire has been told it needs to build 98,380 homes by 2021, with Huntingdonshire set to take 11,200 of them.

But now the Government says it wants the district to take an even greater share.

District council bosses are looking at placing another 2,700 houses in St Neots – on top of the 1,200 already being built at Love's Farm.

They could also more than quadruple the size of Alconbury by building 9,000 on the RAF base, with possible developments at RAF Wyton and Brampton.

Cabinet member for planning at Huntingdonshire District Council Cllr Peter Bucknell said in St Neots, land to the south of Love's Farm has been earmarked for the extra houses.

Cllr Bucknell said: "We are being told to develop in sustainable market towns and what is needed in St Neots as the largest market town in Cambridgeshire is more facilities and the way to get more facilities is to have a larger community.

"St Neots has room to expand, it has good transport links with the A1 and the A428, which we are looking to expand in 2017, and with a bigger community it can attract bigger shops."

Cllr Bucknell also revealed that the RAF bases are likely to be developed when the Regional Spatial Strategy is reviewed in 2011.
He added: "We need to look at brownfield sites like the military bases at Alconbury and Brampton rather than continuing to build on greenfield sites in St Neots."

Leader of Huntingdonshire District Council Cllr Ian Bates said: "We are planning land allocation for housing, employment and leisure.
"Love's Farm is being developed, but when you look out past the railway there is space for more and as well as building what has been set out in the current plan we are looking to the future.

"We are planning for the next 15 years, that's really why the discussions and debates are starting to take place."

The new East of England Spatial Strategy – separate to the district council's plan – published by the Government last month, describes the Cambridge sub-region, of which St Neots, Alconbury and St Ives are a part, as an area of major economic success and as such a target for further major development by 2021.

It also wants the county to speed up its building from 3,780 a year to 5,209 a year.

Cambridgeshire county councillor John Reynolds, who is chairman of the East of England Regional Assembly, said: "98,000 is the minimum number of houses that will be built, with Huntingdonshire taking at least 11,200, and those figures do not include proposed eco-towns, like that at Hanley Grange.