The two Councils, Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council published the First Proposals for the new joint Greater Cambridge Local Plan yesterday. This is also called the Preferred Options stage of the plan making process.
This new Local Plan is not starting from scratch, it is taking the current adopted local plan which is valid from 2011 to 2031, and rolling it into a new plan period of 2020 to 2041. In the current Cambridge City adopted local plan, there is provision for 14,000 homes to be built between 2011 and 2031 to meet the objectively assessed need as required by Government. The current adopted local plan for South Cambs provides for 19,500 for the same period of 2011 to 2031.
Remember that this was the local plan that the previous Conservative administration in South Cambs created and submitted to Government in March 2014. So 33,500 in total already in the pipeline due to current adopted local plans.
During the period between 2014 and 2018 when South Cambs Conservative administration did not have a 5-year housing land supply, 3000+ more planning permissions were granted by the Planning Inspectors in South Cambs. There have also been some “windfall permissions” in the time being in both areas. This means the permissions in the current local plans for both councils is for 37,198 houses already.
Government requires all Councils to provide housing based on what it calls Objectively Assessed Need (OAN) as stated in the National Planning Policy Framework. This OAN uses the Government’s standard method as a baseline, and takes account of additional factors such as population growth/demographics, household projections, employment growth, expected levels of economic activity, and affordable housing needs. This means in areas with a growing economy care must be taken to ensure the right level of housing is provided, otherwise the Planning Inspectors that examine the local plan will demand to see the evidence base for the plan and may find it “unsound”, and send it back to the drawing board if it does not meet the OAN.
South Cambs already went through that under the Conservatives and we don’t want that to happen again.The number of additional new houses being proposed for the new local plan period 2020-2041 using the OAN and allowing a small 10% buffer is 11,596. The current adopted plans for both councils already has 37,198 which is being carried forward, giving a total of 48,794. That means 76.23% (over three quarters) of the housing requirement is already in the pipeline of the current adopted local plans. Just under one quarter, 11,596 is new proposed allocations that we are making. Hope these diagrams help you understand the facts and the role that Conservatives have played in the housebuilding currently going on.
Protecting the rural villages is a key factor in the proposed real new sites. Only 385 are proposed in 5 villages. They were chose due to their proximity to good transport links to minimise carbon footprint.
These proposals will be discussed by the Joint Local Plan Advisory Group (JLPAG) meeting taking place on Wednesday 8th September. The full list of the published documents is here. The JLPAG will make recommendations to both Councils on what changes are needed to make it ready for public consultation starting in November 2021.