More than 80 new-build homes – worth over £40 million – will be knocked down and rebuilt, after more defects were discovered.

Oh dear! – Owl

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Foundation issues were found at dozens of houses at the Darwin Green development in Cambridge – as developers admitted in June that 36 properties need to be demolished.

Now, that number has more than doubled to 83.

It was revealed in documents submitted to Cambridge City Council, as developers, Barratt and David Wilson Homes Cambridgeshire, applied for permission to demolish the homes.

They said tiles and other materials will be salvaged where possible, and concrete and brick will be crushed on site and reused.

At a city council meeting earlier this month, planning officers said they did not believe permission for the demolition work would be given before the end of October.

The Darwin Green estate is still being built and when completed, it will be made up of around 1,500 homes.

The homes sell for at least £575,000 each, with some selling for as much as £850,000.

Developers said in June that it was a “small number” of unoccupied homes that “did not meet its usual high standards”.

At the time, one councillor said people’s “lives and dreams” had been “shattered”, while another called for an independent inquiry.