Draft Greater Cambridge Local Plan for consultation

We have recently published our final WRMP for the period 2025-2050. Our WRMP is also reviewed at least every 5 years to take account of changes.

The property numbers in our WRMP that determine the demand forecast for water are derived from the current adopted local plans and aggregated over our single water resources supply zone. The property forecast does consider specific numbers from larger strategic development, and build out rates, as per the local plans.

Our WRMP includes significant reductions to current abstractions for the environment, and includes supply options to replace this, and allow for planned growth. These will be in effect from 2033 and 2037, but in the interim, any increases to planned growth above that in currently adopted plans could increase demands above our forecasts.

This does not necessarily mean that we cannot accommodate some variations in growth, spread over our entire supply area in total, and within the headroom allowances in our plans to allow for uncertainty. However, additional growth causing significant changes to the demand forecast would require additional supply and/or demand options to be developed to maintain supplies whilst continuing to protect the environment.

As such we are currently restricting non-household connections to those that are below 20m3/day, and would continue to strongly advocate that for domestic dwellings, building regulations require water consumption to be as efficient as possible, adopting 110litres per person as a minimum standard, and preferably specifying lower consumption. We offer incentives for developers designing dwellings to lower water use standards.

We note that proposed growth to 2032, remains similar to your previous plan and that of our WRMP forecast. We support this profile as this short-term stability in growth projections gives us confidence in our ability to supply development whilst we wait for the additional supply option of the Grafham transfer.

Growth from 2032-2045 is elevated from our WRMP, and that further significant strategic sites are being considered beyond 2045. Whilst the Grafham transfer will alleviate some water supply concerns, we remain in a challenging supply position to accept additional growth until the Fens Reservoir comes online. We will continue to work with your and the wider water scarcity group to support unlocking additional opportunities to support further growth.

We would require certainty on growth proposals to incorporate any changes into our revised draft WRMP due in 2028, which we will be working on in 2026-27, to allow for future water supply needs. If in combination, total cumulative proposed growth in our supply area over the planning period would require additional new water supply options, these will be developed and costed as part of the planning process. It is worth noting that significant water resources supply infrastructure can have significant lead times to delivery and would also need to be considered in a regional context.