Cambridgeshire council area

Selling Land in East Cambridgeshire

East Cambridgeshire still works to its 2015 Local Plan, with a housing figure refreshed in October 2023, and it can show 6.17 years of housing land. Work on a replacement plan was put on hold in February 2025, so the development envelopes drawn around Ely, Soham, Littleport and the villages a decade ago still decide most applications.

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Three Market Towns Between the Fen and the Studs

East Cambridgeshire District Council is run from Ely and covers around 651 square kilometres, with about 92,900 residents in 2024. The north takes in part of the Fens around Ely and Littleport, with villages such as Sutton, Haddenham, Witchford and Mepal. The south, around Burwell, Bottisham and Cheveley, is stud country, which the plan describes as dominated by the horseracing industry.

Growth goes to the towns first. Policy GROWTH2 of the Local Plan says most development will be focused on Ely, Soham and Littleport, and names Ely as the district's most significant service and population centre.
Three wildlife sites of international importance. The plan lists Wicken Fen, Chippenham Fen and the Ouse Washes.
A small corner of Green Belt. The plan records 1,910 hectares of the Cambridge Green Belt in the district, around Bottisham, Lode and Swaffham Bulbeck.
Delivery well ahead. The council built 2,058 homes against the 1,773 needed in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 116%.

Supply is not the problem here. What decides a site is where it sits against an envelope, how high it lies above the fen, and whether it touches a protected habitat or the racing estates.

East Cambridgeshire in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, its latest five-year housing land supply, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
116%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
6.17 years
Five years or more of deliverable housing land. Position at 1 April 2025, measured against the adopted Local Plan requirement of 600 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by East Cambridgeshire District Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
2,058
of 1,773 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
October 2023
The plan currently used to decide applications.
New plan progress
No recent stage listed
Check the council's website for its timetable.

Sources: Housing Delivery Test: 2025 measurement, MHCLG, published 17 August 2026; Local plans: monitoring progress, Planning Inspectorate, August 2026. Local plans move quickly, so always check the council's own website for the latest position.

A 2015 Plan Carrying a 2023 Housing Figure

Official records date the plan to October 2023, which is correct but only part of the story. The council's Local Plan page explains that the plan was first adopted on 21 April 2015 and that some small changes followed on 19 October 2023, so it is now called the East Cambridgeshire Local Plan 2015 (as amended 2023). The 2023 work was a single issue review. It updated only the strategic housing policy, GROWTH1, and some of its supporting text.

The inspector who examined that review held hearings on 8 November 2022 and 28 March 2023. His report of 5 October 2023 records that the government's standard method, run with a 2022 base date, gave a minimum need of 599.78 homes a year, and he settled on 600 a year for the rest of the plan period. Policy GROWTH1 now provides for 5,400 homes between 2022 and 2031. The review proposed no change to the policies map.

Both dates are right, and each matters. The housing number, being under five years old, is still the one the council tests supply against. The envelopes, allocations and countryside policies around your land date from 2015 and were not reopened, and the plan runs only to 2031.

A Supply Measured Against 600 Homes a Year

The council's five-year housing land supply report, published on 22 December 2025 and covering the five years from 1 April 2025, finds 6.17 years. The calculation runs as follows:

Source: East Cambridgeshire District Council, Five Year Housing Land Supply report, December 2025.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Yearly requirement	600 homes, from policy GROWTH1 as amended in 2023
Five-year requirement	3,000 homes
Buffer	5%, or 150 homes, as the council passed the delivery test
Requirement with buffer	3,150 homes
Deliverable supply	3,888 homes, led by 2,515 on major sites with detailed permission
Margin over five years	738 homes
Result	6.17 years

The rest comes from 726 homes with outline permission, 377 on smaller consented sites, 120 on allocations without permission and 150 windfalls. The same report gives net completions of 820 in 2022/23, 616 in 2023/24 and 659 in 2024/25, each above the 600 target, although the latest year counts a 66-bed care home as 35 homes.

A Steady Position Over Five Years

The council's earlier statements show the same picture. In October 2021, while the 2015 plan's housing figure was more than five years old, the council measured against the standard method and found seven years of supply. Its April 2024 statement, measured against the new 600 figure, found 6.48 years.

The July 2026 Buffer Rule

A national rule in force since 1 July 2026 raises the buffer to 20% when applications are decided, if a requirement under five years old was tested against a pre-December 2024 framework and falls at or below 80% of the standard method figure. East Cambridgeshire's 600 was examined that way, and the December report set the rule aside as not yet in force. Applied to the council's figures, a 20% buffer gives 3,600 homes needed against 3,888 counted, still above five years.

What That Means for a Field Outside a Village

Under the August 2026 framework, policy S5 supports homes beyond a village or town where unmet need for homes is evidenced and the site sits well against the settlement and can be served. A supply shortfall is one such piece of evidence, weighed case by case. East Cambridgeshire, at 116% with supply clear of five years, offers none today, so an open field outside an envelope is rarely a strong application. In the Green Belt around Bottisham, Lode and Swaffham Bulbeck S5 does not apply at all, and grey belt has its own need test, usually a supply short of five years or a result below 75%, which neither figure meets.

Envelopes, Exceptions and the Green Belt Villages

So much turns on the envelopes. Policy GROWTH2 says that inside a defined envelope, homes to meet local needs will normally be permitted where there is no significant harm to the character and appearance of the area. Outside, it allows only a closed list of uses, which includes affordable housing exception sites, homes for rural workers, the re-use of existing buildings and specific allocations. That gives four realistic routes:

Inside an envelope. Plots, large gardens and backland in Ely, Soham, Littleport and the villages with envelopes. National policy S4 adds weight, allowing refusal only where the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits, and it does not depend on the supply figure.
Rural exception sites. Land at a village edge for affordable homes, one of the uses the plan allows outside the envelopes.
Existing buildings and previously developed land. Redundant farm buildings, yards and former commercial sites follow their own rules.
The next Local Plan. Larger fields on the edges of the towns and bigger villages, which will be chosen through a new plan once work restarts.

Neighbourhood Plans

Parishes have added their own layer. In 2024/25 alone, neighbourhood plans were made for Cheveley, Mepal, Soham, Sutton and Witchford, according to the council's monitoring report. We read the relevant one alongside the district policies before giving a view.

Bottisham, Lode and Swaffham Bulbeck

Only the south-western corner of the district lies in the Cambridge Green Belt. There, a yard or a plot carrying lawful commercial buildings is treated differently from an open field, and our grey belt guide explains the tests. For small plots across the rest of the district, our page on paddocks and small sites shows what we look for.

Fen Levels, Washes and Racing Estates

Height Above the Fen

The council's monitoring report puts flood risk among the district's key issues, because so much of the fenland in the north is at or below sea level. Its Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, published in November 2017 at two levels of detail, maps flood zones, surface water and groundwater across the district and sets out how the sequential test applies when sites are chosen. Small differences in height can decide the flood zone, so we check the maps first. Our guide to flood risk and development land explains the tests.

The Ouse Washes, Wicken Fen and Chippenham Fen

Land near these sites is judged on its effect on their habitats. The plan also lists the Wicken Fen Vision, alongside improvements to Soham Town Commons and the Ouse corridor, among the green infrastructure it expects growth to help deliver.

Studs and the Racing Industry

Across the south, where the plan notes large areas of farmland given over to studs, policy EMP 6 deals specifically with development that affects the racing industry. A field next to a working stud is therefore judged on more than its housing merits.

The Land We Look for in East Cambridgeshire

Plots, gardens and backland inside the envelopes of Ely, Soham, Littleport and the larger villages such as Burwell, Bottisham, Haddenham and Sutton.
Fields of 2 acres or more on the edges of the three market towns, particularly on higher ground in Flood Zone 1.
Land at a village edge that could suit affordable homes for local people.
Redundant farmyards, commercial yards and buildings with a lawful use.
Larger holdings that could play a part in the next Local Plan.

For land that belongs in the next plan, flood, access, ecology and landscape studies come first, long before the council asks for sites. The cost of every study falls on us. The option we offer fixes your price on signing, pitched above the land's present value. Meanwhile the land stays in your hands to farm or let as before, and if planning is refused in the end, it remains yours with nothing owed.

A Plan on Hold and a Housing Figure That Turns Five

October 2028

The supply report notes that the requirement turns five in October 2028. From then on, national policy generally expects the council to swap its 600 a year for the national formula when it checks supply, with the buffer set by the latest delivery result. We make no forecast of the outcome, but the yardstick behind today's 6.17 years will change on that date, whatever happens to building rates.

The Replacement Plan

In February 2025 councillors unanimously agreed to put the new Local Plan on hold, having earlier aimed to finish it by the end of 2027. It gave three reasons: reorganisation could mean new boundaries and repeated technical studies, new national plan-making guidance was due, and its supply then covered six to seven years.

Reorganisation, Paused

The government's review of reorganisation, launched on 7 September 2026, put Cambridgeshire and Peterborough on hold, and council elections in May 2027 keep today's boundaries. The district council remains the planning authority, the uncertainty it cited in 2025 has not lifted, and it has published no restart date.

The Next Delivery Test and Supply Statement

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. At 116%, none of its consequences applies. The district would need to fall below 95% before an action plan was required; a 20% buffer starts below 85%, and the automatic finding of unmet need under policy S5 below 75%. The council has updated its supply statement roughly once a year and has not dated the next one.

What This Means for Timing

Land inside an envelope, rural exception sites and existing buildings do not depend on the plan or the supply figure and can be looked at now.
Edge-of-town fields are best prepared so that their evidence is ready when the council restarts its plan or the 2028 change arrives, whichever comes first.
Unclear which group your land falls in? That is the first thing our free review settles.

Questions About Land in East Cambridgeshire

The council has paused its new plan. Can I still put my land forward?

With no plan in preparation there is no consultation to answer, but preparation need not wait. A site whose flood, access and ecology evidence is ready when work restarts is far better placed, and we pay for that work where we take a site on.

My field is just outside the Soham development envelope. Is it worth asking?

Yes, though the route is likely to be the next plan rather than an application while the supply stays above five years. If the field could suit affordable homes for local people, the rural exception route may apply sooner.

Does it help that the plan's housing figure turns five in October 2028?

It changes how supply is measured, not whether your land is suitable. If a later statement fell below five years, well placed land outside the envelopes would gain an argument it lacks today.

Part of my land is in the fen and part is higher. Does that rule it out?

Not necessarily. Many schemes put the homes on the higher ground and keep the lower land as open space or drainage. We check the flood zones field by field before giving a view.

I own paddocks next to a stud near Cheveley. Can they be built on?

Possibly, but policy EMP 6 means the effect on the racing industry is weighed alongside the usual tests, and the envelope still matters. We look at the setting and the neighbouring use before advising.

Tell Us About Your Land in East Cambridgeshire

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Sources

Figures on this page come from the Housing Delivery Test 2025 (published 17 August 2026) and the Planning Inspectorate's local plan monitoring to August 2026, with newer plan milestones checked on 24 September 2026. We update the page when new results or plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.