Leading councillors have reaffirmed their commitment to resisting speculative planning applications and protecting South Cambridgeshire’s countryside.
Recent speculative planning applications have tried to suggest the District Council is not meeting the Government’s target for new homes.
However, councillors reject those claims, pointing out the Government’s own figures show that during the last three years, 4,475 new homes have been built in South Cambridgeshire.
That figure is around 1,400 more new homes than the Government’s target of 3,032 for the district in that time.
The dispute centres on how national planning rules measure housing need and housing land available for development across Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire.
Leading councillors are frustrated that, despite repeatedly asking Government to change the way housing delivery is measured across Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire, no action has been taken. As a result, some developers are trying to use national planning rules to argue that protections against building in the countryside should not apply.
In one recent case, a Planning Inspector overturned the District Council's decision to refuse plans for 40 homes in Great Abington. The Council had refused the application because the site lies outside the village, is in the countryside and was not allocated for development in the adopted Local Plan.
The Council recently revised its housing supply calculations using the Government's latest figures, which measure South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge separately. The Council made this change during the process of the Great Abington appeal and does not consider the outcome of that appeal sets a precedent for future planning decisions elsewhere.
Lead Cabinet Member for Planning at South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cllr Henry Batchelor, said: “This is hugely frustrating. We have tried and failed to convince the Government to act to fix an anomaly in the way they treat Greater Cambridge when it comes to these housing targets. We now find South Cambridgeshire being characterised, in some cases, as falling short of meeting its housing needs - which is clearly not the case. Since 2021, based upon the Government’s own data, we have delivered 139% of the Government’s housing target. On that basis, we simply can’t accept that there is an under-delivery of new homes in the district that would justify unplanned new development.
“We will therefore continue to resist speculative development that would undermine our carefully planned approach to growth that communities have helped shape. New development should take place in the right locations, supported by the facilities and services residents need.”
- Government target for 2022/23: 975
- Number of homes delivered in 2022/23: 1,457
- Government target for 2023/24: 1,018
- Number of homes delivered in 2023/24: 1,281
- Government target for 2024/25: 1,039
- Number of homes delivered in 2024/25: 1,737
Source: Housing Delivery Test: 2025 measurement - GOV.UK
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