The Government requires local planning authorities to compile a Brownfield Land Register. The Greater Cambridge Land Register lists all the brownfield sites considered suitable for housing development.
Through Brownfield Land Registers, a standard set of information is kept up-to-date and made publicly available to provide information for developers and communities, and to encourage investment in local areas.
Brownfield land
‘Brownfield' (previously developed) land is defined in Annex 2 of the National Planning Policy Framework as:
"Land which is or was occupied by a permanent structure, including the curtilage of the developed land (although it should not be assumed that the whole of the curtilage should be developed) and any associated fixed surface infrastructure. This excludes: land that is or was last occupied by agricultural or forestry buildings; land that has been developed for minerals extraction or waste disposal by landfill, where provision for restoration has been made through development management procedures; land in built-up areas such as residential gardens, parks, recreation grounds and allotments; and land that was previously developed but where the remains of the permanent structure or fixed surface structure have blended into the landscape."
The Brownfield Land Register
The Town and Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017 requires each local planning authority to prepare and publish a Brownfield Land Register and update it, at least annually.
The purpose of Brownfield Land Registers is to provide up-to-date and consistent publicly available information on sites that local authorities consider to be appropriate for residential development.
The Government has published guidance to support local planning authorities in preparing and publishing Brownfield Land Registers. The guidance includes a template for compiling the Brownfield Land Register.
The Brownfield Land Register includes brownfield land that accords with the NPPF definition and the following criteria:
- 0.25ha. / 5 dwellings or more,
- Suitable in planning terms (in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework and policies in the Development Plan),
- Available (the landowner / promoter has expressed an intention to sell or develop the land and there are no known impediments to it being delivered),
- Achievable (development is likely to start within 15 years).
The register is compiled in two parts:
- Part 1 is a comprehensive list of identified brownfield sites.
- Part 2 is a list of sites the Council considers appropriate to give
‘Permission in Principle’.
Greater Cambridge Brownfield Land Register
The Brownfield Land Register provides publicly available information on all known brownfield sites in Greater Cambridge using data from the Councils’ Development Plans and sites with planning permission.
The 2024 Register sites have planning permission or resolution to grant planning permission, and some are allocations from the adopted Development Plans.
Given that all of the sites have planning permission or resolution to grant planning permission, they have been entered into Part 1 of The Register. As a result, there was no need to consider whether to grant ‘permission in principle’ (and enter sites into Part 2), or, undertake consultation, publicity and notification (which is required for Part 2 only). This may be a consideration for future reviews.
The Brownfield Land Register comprises a text file of data and a polygon GIS layer format:
- Greater Cambridge Brownfield Land Register 2024 (Excel) [CSV, 87KB]
- Cambridge City Brownfield Land Register 2024 (Excel) [CSV, 87KB]
- South Cambridgeshire Brownfield Land Register 2024 (Excel) [CSV, 0.1MB]
This data is provided under the Open Government Licence.
Interactive map of Brownfield Land Register sites
This map shows the sites included within the Greater Cambridge Brownfield Land Register..
Please click the image below to enlarge the map.
