This document from Cambridge City Council’s Planning and Transport Scrutiny Committee needs publicising and discussing amongst much wider circles
See item 7 of the meeting papers here. The main document is at Appendix A, which needs going through carefully by someone who is not me.
“The purpose of the Greater Cambridge Planning Obligations SPD is to provide guidance
on how the Councils seek to apply planning obligations, through the Section 106 process,
to new development proposals. It will supplement Policy 85: Infrastructure delivery,
planning obligations and the Community Infrastructure Levy of the Cambridge Local Plan
2018 and Policy TI/8: Infrastructure and New Developments of the South Cambridgeshire
Local Plan 2018, alongside other policies within the adopted development plans that seek
to secure infrastructure necessary to support the needs generated by proposed
developments.”
Above – Item 7 – Officer’s Report to councillors
“Of the representations received, 1 was in support, 26 were objections, and
171 were comments seeking amendments to the SPD”
Above – from the Consultation Report at Annex A
The organisations that stand out for me are:
- Home Builders Federation – the trade federation of the developers who lobbied against the Zero Carbon standard for new homes from 2016 – and won when ministers climbed down from a policy set nearly a decade before.
- Savills on behalf of Pigeon – the latter have co-development rights to land in the greenbelt south of Cambridge, but because it is greenbelt land, they cannot build on it. If it is redesignated as available for development, the land value shoots up. It is that increase that ministers are looking to ‘capture’ in order to fund infrastructure improvements.
- The University of Cambridge – who really should be making much more of an effort to involve their staff (academic and non-academic) and students in shaping the policies of their institutions.
- Carter Jonas on behalf of U+I (Cambridge) Limited and Cambridge 4 LLP). The latter appears to be a partnership between Anglian Water Group and Cambridge City Council, with the former involved in the North East Cambridge redevelopment
- Carter Jonas on behalf of a number of named companies – although the report says they are listed here on the GCSP website, I can’t see the list of respondents!
- Abbey Properties (Cambridge) Ltd – Property developers
- Vistry Strategic Land – developers who built a number of properties in Trumpington
- Howard Felstead – Senior Associate at Mills and Reeve in Cambridge
- Jaynic – promoting a specific site at Boxworth for development
- Hill Residential – developers.
- Savills on behalf of MA CSP 2 Limited / MA Propco 11 Limited – appear to be owned by and representing Brockton Everlast, developing sites on the Cambridge Science Park.
- Cambridge Science Park
- Urban and Civic PLC
There are also a number of public bodies listed including CUH NHS Trust, Cambs Fire and Rescue, and Cambridgeshire County Council
Browsing through the responses will give you a picture of the arguments different parts of the construction and development industry are making to local councils as the emerging local plan comes out.
The tension between profit-maximising firms (who have a legal obligation / fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of their shareholders – even if it means at the expense of local residents who live in place), versus local councils who understandably will be looking out for how they can maximise the contributions from developers to provide much-needed infrastructure.
“One of the things Dr Williams mentioned was the failure of previous governments to build the necessary infrastructure needed for previous expansions.”
Above – Dr Andy Williams, formerly of Astra Zeneca in a speech to Queen Edith’s residents back in March 2023
Essentially the development industry was able to make an absolute fortune while leaving newbuild estates without the necessary infrastructure needed. As I’ve mentioned before, this is not a situation exclusive to the private sector as history tells us. The theme to look out for is where the representations seek to limit the additional costs that developers might have to incur.
Food for thought?
If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to:
- Follow me on BSky
- Like my Facebook page
- Consider a small donation to help fund my continued research and reporting on local democracy in and around Cambridge.
Below – What do councillors do? An event from The Trials of Democracy Project on Thurs 20 March 2025 from 7pm at St Pauls, Hills Road, Cambridge. Do sign up!
The Cambridge Town Owl 