Greater Cambridge Local Plan: Proposed Submission

We strongly support this policy, which will mean that new homes in Cambridge are highly energy efficient and developers will also have to provide enough new solar to meet all the building’s energy needs
This is ambitious, but there are a few other local authorities with similar policies, so we want it here too.
We understand that some leading developers are already working to these standards. For example, we are told that the developer Town recently received planning permission for a development of 14 homes in Oundle Northamptonshire designed to the policies proposed in the Greater Cambridge Local Plan. https://www.town.co.uk/projects/

We strongly support this policy to encourage renewables and battery storage, particularly on existing infrastructure. It also states that solar farms over 10MW must either provide a community benefit fund or let the local community own a proportion of the scheme.
We strongly support the requirement for a community benefit fund, although It’s disappointing that it doesn’t specify how much the developer needs to pay. In Scotland, the standard payment is £5,000/MW per year, index linked with inflation, for the life of the scheme. We want a similar mandatory level across the UK and understand Government is considering this.

We support this policy.
We are pleased to see that the policy emphasises the importance of external shading. Cambridge is in the UK’s climate change “hotspot”, and evidence shows that external shading is one of the most effective ways to prevent overheating, and significantly more effective than internal blinds.
It also encourages trees and green roofs, while discouraging new buildings with floor to ceiling, south or west facing windows. These measures should all help occupants of the new buildings stay cooler in future heatwaves.

As evidence of the need to increase the use of external shading in homes in Greater Cambridge, and restrict the use of oversized windows, see the results of the survey we carried out in 2026, exploring residents’ experience of heatwaves in the Greater Cambridge Area
One respondent said “We live in an expensive architect-designed development from 2012-13. All the apartments have living rooms with large windows facing West and they ALL become unbearably hot in recent summers. Currently the developers do not allow external blinds or shutters”

We support this policy because Greater Cambridge is an economically important water stressed region with globally important chalk streams, where growth is constrained by the shortage of water.
The policy will require new homes to be very efficient in how they use water. Larger housing developments (over 100 homes) will effectively have to use some form of water recycling, for example collecting rainwater or using water from showers to flush toilets. We support this, but to be effective it will be important to update the Drinking Water regulations.
These currently make it illegal to operate the UK’s largest water recycling system, which was incorporated into Cambridge’s Eddington Development of 3000 homes 10 years ago, but has never been switched on.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/aug/19/water-reuse-recycling-law-cambridgeshire