In general, the Plan’s vision of Greater Cambridge being “a place where a big decrease in our climate impacts comes with a big increase in the quality of everyday life for all our communities” is supported. This is considered to be in accordance with the purpose of the planning system (as defined by the NPPF, which is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. Which, at a high level, can be summarised as “meeting the needs for the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (paragraph 7 of the NPPF).
Paragraph 8 of the NPPF emphasises that achieving sustainable development means that the planning system has three overarching objectives (economic, social and environmental), which are interdependent and should be pursued in mutually supportive ways.
The Greater Cambridge Plan’s aim to plan for enough housing to meet the area’s housing needs, (including affordable housing to rent and buy), and to plan for different homes to suit the needs of different communities; is considered to comply with both the social objective and economic objective. From a social perspective, paragraph 8b of the NPPF makes it clear that to support strong, vibrant and healthy communities it is important to ensure that a sufficient number and range of homes can be provided. NPPF paragraph 8a states that in order to build a strong, responsive and competitive economy, sufficient land of the right type is available in the right places and at the right time to support economic growth. Whilst this paragraph does relate to the supply of employment land, we believe that it is also crucial that the planned supply of housing for Greater Cambridge is sufficient to support the area’s considerable economic growth.
The aim of helping Greater Cambridge transition to net zero carbon by 2050 by ensuring development is sited in places that help to limit carbon emissions, and ensuring development is designed to the highest achievable standards for energy and water use is also supported and is considered to be in accordance with the environmental objective of sustainable development (as defined by NPPF paragraph 8c).