Greater Cambridge Local Plan: the 20-year plan for the Greater Cambridge area

Draft Greater Cambridge Local Plan published for councillors to consider ahead of planned public consultation 

Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District councils are currently preparing the Greater Cambridge Local Plan.

The draft Local Plan and supporting documents will be scrutinised by local councillors – starting with Cambridge City Council’s Performance, Assets and Strategy Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 4 November; then the South Cambridgeshire District Council Scrutiny and Overview Committee on Thursday 6 November.

The draft Local Plan will then be taken to a joint Cabinet meeting between both councils on Tuesday 25 November who will decide whether the proposals proceed to public consultation, currently proposed to start on 1 December for 8 weeks.

To view Scrutiny and Overview Committee agenda papers - visit: Agenda for Performance, Assets and Strategy Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, 4th November, 2025, 5.30 pm - Cambridge Council and to view draft Local Plan documents through our Document Library: Draft Greater Cambridge Local Plan: Scrutiny Committee Pack | Greater Cambridge Shared Planning.

What the draft Local Plan is

The draft Local Plan shows where new homes and workplaces could be built over the next 20 years - and how essential community facilities and public services would support this expected growth. Once adopted, the joint Local Plan would become the statutory development plan for the Greater Cambridge area. 

The production of a Local Plan ensures a consistent approach to planning and building across Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council until 2045. 

The draft Local Plan sets out the Development Strategy and proposed development within the Cambridge urban area, the edge of Cambridge, new settlements, the rural southern cluster and the rest of the rural area. The plan sets out our vision for Greater Cambridge through development management policies under seven key themes of:

• Climate change
• Biodiversity and green spaces 
• Great places
• Wellbeing and social inclusion
• Homes
• Jobs
• Infrastructure.

The Local Plan follows a set process, and will be independently verified to check if it is sound before it can be formally adopted. The examination will test whether the Plan is realistic, deliverable and based on good evidence. 

Local Plans, along with national planning policy, are the foundation of decision-making on planning applications. 

Where we are proposing to build 

In our First Proposals draft version of the Plan in 2021, we suggested new sites that might be suitable for more development to meet our needs up to 2041. Since then, we have considered the consultation feedback, and updated our assessments of the need for jobs and homes. Evidence confirmed the need for over 50,000 new homes between 2024 and 2045 to meet the forecast increase in jobs. Some 37,000 of these homes are already provided for within planning permissions and sites identified in the adopted local plans from 2018.

The plan-making process so far 

Call for Sites - 2019

In 2019 we held an initial Call for Sites and workshops with a wide range of groups to understand what they felt the big issues for the Plan might be. 

First Conversations (Issues and Options) - 2020 

In January and February 2020, we held the First Conversation – a big public consultation on the big themes and challenges for the plan.  

In September 2020 we published the responses to the First Conversation, and information received through the Call for Sites. Read our news release about the findings. 

In November 2020 we published initial evidence base findings and development strategy options assessments. You can read our news release about the main findings, and the additional water briefing [PDF, 0.1MB] we published at the time.  

First Proposals consultation (Regulation 18) - 2021

In late 2021 we held a full public consultation on the First Proposals for the Plan, including a wide range of in-person and online events and activity.   

You can read more about how consultation has influenced the Plan so far in the Consultation Statement in our document library. 

View a map of our 2021 proposed sites, which were consulted on as part of the First Proposals consultation. 

View a map of all the sites submitted to us for possible development as part of the Call for Sites in the early plan-making stages. 

Since 2021

We looked at the issues raised about the First Proposals consultation before the next consultation stage. Between autumn 2022 and spring 2023 we held meetings of the Joint Local Plan Advisory Group where members talked about the consultation feedback received. 

In early 2023 Members made decisions about the development strategy and key sites as well as confirming an updated need for jobs and homes, drawing on new evidence. These decisions guided the preparation of the draft local plan. Documents regarding these decisions are in our Document Library. 

Our latest timetable for the Local Plan was set out in the Local Development Scheme [PDF, 0.6MB] was adopted in January 2025. 

In January 2023 we published our Development Strategy update report. We held a public webinar about the report where we talked through the report and answered questions. You can view the recording here, and please read the Development Strategy Update and supporting documents for further information. 

What happens next 

The Plan and supporting documents will be scrutinised by local councillors – starting with Cambridge City Council’s Performance, Assets and Strategy Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 4 November; then the South Cambridgeshire District Council Scrutiny and Overview Committee on Thursday 6 November.

The plan will then be put in front of a joint Cabinet meeting between both councils on Tuesday 25 November who will decide whether the proposals proceed to public consultation, currently proposed to start on 1 December 2025 for 8 weeks.

To view Scrutiny and Overview Committee agenda papers - visit: Agenda for Performance, Assets and Strategy Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday, 4th November, 2025, 5.30 pm - Cambridge Council and to view draft Local Plan documents through our Document Library: Draft Greater Cambridge Local Plan: Scrutiny Committee Pack | Greater Cambridge Shared Planning.

The timetable for the plans journey through each Council is set out below:

• 4 November 2025: Cambridge City Council Performance, Assets and Strategy Overview and Scrutiny Committee 
• 6 November 2025: South Cambridgeshire District Council Scrutiny and Overview Committee 
• 25 November 2025: Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire Cabinets (shared meeting) 
• 1 December 2025 – 30 Jan 2026: Proposed public consultation.