URBAN&CIVIC has been appointed as the manager for a 6,500-home development on the site of a former Royal Air Force barracks.

The company, which went on to the stock market ear-lier this year after a reverse acquisition by Scottish firm Terrace Hill, is now working to bring the proposals for the Waterbeach site on the out-skirts of Cambridge through the planning process.

The outline planning application is expected to be submitted in the next two years. Urban&Civic will also be involved in the funding and development of infrastructure before parcels of land can be sold to housebuilders. It expects to build around 35 per cent of the houses itself.

Chairman Nigel Hugill said: "The development at Waterbeach represents properly joined-up national thinking.

"It involves public brownfield land being released by a major Government ministry for value-enhancing development that anticipates and facilitates change in one of the most innovative and creative locations in the UK, whilst returning substantial proceeds to the taxpayer in the process.

"For our own part, to be selected without consortium partners and so soon after public listing speaks unequi-vocally to what Urban&Civic can achieve."

Terrace Hill shareholders voted in favour of a share placing to raise £170 million in May.

The money was used to acquire Urban&Civic with the enlarged business trading under that name.

The company also moved from the Alternative Investment Market to the main market of the London Stock Exchange.