Proposed Submission Greater Cambridge Local Plan

Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council are working together to create the first joint Local Plan for Greater Cambridge.

The Proposed Submission Greater Cambridge Local Plan was approved for consultation at a joint Cabinet meeting between both councils on Tuesday 21 July which will run from 9am Monday 3 August to 5pm Friday 25 September.

The Plan shows where new homes and workplaces could be built over the next 20 years, and how essential community facilities and infrastructure would support this expected growth. Once adopted, the joint Local Plan will become the statutory development plan for Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire.

This Local Plan is the version we intend to send to government for examination. Your comments (called ‘representations’ at this stage) should focus on whether the Local Plan complies with relevant legislation and is ‘sound’, which is defined as justified, effective, positively prepared and consistent with national planning policies.

Understanding the plan

Before making a representation, we recommend you take some time to review, understand and consider the Local Plan and its supporting evidence. For further guidance on how to submit comments, please see the Representation Guidance Note.

We are consulting on:

• The Proposed Submission Greater Cambridge Local Plan, which sets out our proposed vision, development strategy, site allocations in different parts of Greater Cambridge, and development management policies, organised under 7 key themes. This can be viewed as our Digital Local Plan , or a static document.
• The Proposed Submission Greater Cambridge Policies Map, which illustrates where the Plan’s policies, designations and site allocations would apply. This can be viewed as an interactive map or downloaded as static maps.
• Two key supporting documents:
• the Sustainability Appraisal (SA), which assesses how the Plan will help to achieve relevant environmental, economic and social objectives
• the Habitats Regulation Assessment (HRA), which test if the Plan could significantly harm legally protected areas for rare nature.

For more information you can also:

• read our Local Plan Summary and visit the Story Map to get a quick understanding of the Plan and what’s changed since the last consultation
• read our topic papers, to understand in more detail how we got here and all the changes made since the last consultation
• review other relevant supporting evidence, which can be viewed in our document library
• read our guidance on making a representation, so your comments can be properly considered

You could also watch our video to understand more about the Local Plan process, the stage we’ve reached and the focus of this consultation.

How to get involved

View and comment on the Proposed Submission Greater Cambridge Local Plan

Paper copies of the Local Plan are available at the councils’ offices in Cambridge and Cambourne and at Cambridge Central and Cambourne libraries.

Further information can be found in our Statement of Representations Procedure. If you have difficulty commenting online, please contact us on 01954 713694 or localplan@greatercambridgeplanning.org and we will help you comment in other ways.

All comments received during the consultation period will be published. Please refer to our Privacy Notice for further details, which can be found on our website.

A number of in-person and online events are being held where you can ask questions about this consultation which can be found at the bottom of this page. There is no need to register in advance to attend. However, if you are able to register, it will help us plan staffing and ensure we have enough resources available on the day.

Site submissions

As part of preparing the Local Plan, the Councils must identify enough suitable land to meet future housing and employment needs. National planning policy requires us to consider sites submitted by landowners, developers and site promoters, alongside sites identified by the Councils.

A Call for Sites in 2019 resulted in over 600 site submissions for housing and economic development. Additional sites and updated information were received through Local Plan consultations in 2020, 2021 and 2025, and through a Site Submission Update exercise in early 2025. In total, almost 1,000 sites have been considered during preparation of the Plan.

All submitted sites can be viewed:

• on our Sites Webmap
• on the Sites Register which also includes any supporting information provided by landowners and site promoters
• on the static map of new and resubmitted sites.

The Local Plan has now been through several consultation stages where sites have been submitted and considered. At this consultation, you can still make comments on sites that they believe should have been included or excluded from the Plan, in order for the Plan to be sound.

How did we get here

Work on the Local Plan started in 2020. Three consultations were held prior to this one, most recently on the Draft Local Plan from 1 December 2025 until 30 January 2026. 1,286 separate people made over 8,400 comments, which have been carefully considered and have helped to shape the Proposed Submission Local Plan. Nearly 1,000 site submissions have also been assessed since the start of the Local Plan process.

Our Regulation 19 Consultation Statement summarises all of the representations submitted at Draft Plan stage and sets out our responses. For copies of all comments in full, please visit our consultation platform, and look through each Chapter of the Plan to find the comments at the bottom of the pages. Please also refer to our Privacy Notice for further details of how we hold your information.

What happens next

Following the consultation, all comments will be reviewed by officers and reported to the full Council, before being submitted to the government alongside the Local Plan and its supporting documents and evidence. In line with the deadline established by government, we are required to do this by the end of December 2026.

An independent examination of the Local Plan is then expected to commence in early 2027. When submitting your representation, you will be asked whether you wish to participate in the Examination hearings. The appointed Planning Inspector will decide whether participation at a hearing session is necessary and who will be invited to attend.