Cambridgeshire council area

Selling Land in Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire builds more homes than the government asks of it, with a delivery result of 136%, yet on its own figures it cannot show five years of housing land. Its 2019 plan is past its fifth anniversary and a Local Plan to 2046 has reached its final round of comment, so land around St Neots, Huntingdon, St Ives, Ramsey and the villages can be weighed on two tracks at once.

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Five Market Towns and a Cluster of New Communities

Huntingdonshire District Council covers about 912 square kilometres and some 190,600 people. St Neots is the largest town, with around 33,400 residents, followed by Huntingdon, where the council is based, and St Ives, with Ramsey, Godmanchester and larger villages from Yaxley and Sawtry to Kimbolton and Little Paxton.

Growth at scale already under way. The council's guide to its new plan lists 6,500 homes under construction at Alconbury Weald, 3,820 at St Neots East, around Wintringham Park and Loves Farm, and 1,650 at Ermine Street in Huntingdon.
A strong delivery record. The district built 3,369 homes against a requirement of 2,474 in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 136%.
A plan now past five. The Local Plan to 2036 was adopted in May 2019, and the council records that it reached five years old on 15 May 2024.
Short of five years of land. The council's latest statement puts supply at 3.68 years, counted from 1 April 2025.
A successor at its final stage. The council published its pre-submission Local Plan to 2046 for comment from 16 September to 28 October 2026.

Why a council that builds this well is short of land shows where the opportunities lie.

Huntingdonshire 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
136%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
3.68 years
Short of five years: national policy treats this as evidence of unmet housing need. Position at 1 April 2025, measured against the standard method, 1,232 homes a year, less a 534-home surplus from earlier years, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by Huntingdonshire District Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
3,369
of 2,474 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
May 2019
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
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.

How a Council at 136% Ends Up Short of Land

The two measures look different ways. The delivery test counts homes already built over April 2022 to March 2025. The five-year supply looks forward, and once the 2019 plan turned five the council had to test it against the government's standard method instead of its own plan figure. The council's Annual Monitoring Report for 2024/25, published on 24 November 2025, sets out the sum:

Source: Huntingdonshire District Council, Annual Monitoring Report Part 1 (Housing Supply) 2024/25, November 2025.
Step in the calculation	Council's figure
Yearly figure used	1,232 homes under the standard method, against 804 a year (20,100 homes to 2036) in the adopted plan
Five years at that rate	6,160 homes
Credit for past building	534 homes, the surplus left after 11,953 completions from 2011/12 to 2024/25 are set against the plan's requirement
Requirement after the credit	5,626 homes
Buffer	5%, as the council passed the delivery test
Requirement with buffer	5,907 homes
Deliverable homes, April 2025 to March 2030	4,345 homes
Result	3.68 years

Work the numbers and the story is plain. The yardstick rose by more than half, from 804 to 1,232 homes a year, while the building rate did not. Completions over the five years to March 2025 ran at 1,041, 1,053, 1,250, 1,276 and then 858, so only the two peak years cleared the new yearly figure, and the latest was the lowest of the run. The gap between the homes required and the homes counted is 1,562.

What the Council Itself Concludes

The monitoring report is direct: the council cannot demonstrate a five-year supply, so the presumption in favour of sustainable development applies and the relevant Local Plan policies are treated as out of date. Its monitoring and evidence page repeats the position. Under policy S5 of the August 2026 framework, a shortfall of this kind is evidence of unmet need for land beyond a settlement's edge. It is not an automatic pass. The site must relate well to the town or village, be of a scale its roads, schools and drainage can take, and pass the ordinary tests on flood risk, landscape, design and access. For a field that does, the council's own numbers are on its side.

A 2046 Plan for 32,200 Homes

The pre-submission Local Plan to 2046 covers 2021 to 2046 and makes provision for at least 32,200 homes, with about 15,400 jobs. It aims more than 80% of that growth at the market towns, the new communities and the service centres. The market towns are St Neots, Huntingdon, St Ives, Ramsey and Bury, and the service centres include Brampton, Fenstanton, Godmanchester, Kimbolton, Little Paxton, Sawtry, Somersham and Yaxley. Over 11,300 homes already had permission or were under construction at 31 March 2026.

From the council's Local Plan Guide to the pre-submission plan, September 2026. The plan also names Huntingdon Racecourse in the North Huntingdon cluster, and land east of Loves Farm (Tithe Farm) and south west of Potton Road at St Neots.
Large site	Homes in the council's guide
Alconbury Weald, north of Huntingdon	6,500, under construction
Lodge Farm, North Huntingdon growth cluster	4,900, a new community
Wyton Airfield, North Huntingdon growth cluster	4,000, a new community
St Neots East (Wintringham Park and Loves Farm)	3,820, under construction
The Lattenburys, listed with Hemingford Abbots	3,800, a new community
Giffords Park, listed with Needingworth	1,750
Ermine Street, Huntingdon	1,650, under construction

A Stepped Target, and Why It Matters

The plan steps its target up over time: at least 5,250 homes from 2025/26 to 2029/30, an average of 1,050 a year, then 6,250 from 2030/31 to 2034/35, averaging 1,250, and 16,300 from 2035/36 to 2045/46, averaging 1,482. The first step sits below the 1,232 a year used in today's supply sum. National policy generally measures supply against the requirement in a plan less than five years old, so if the plan is adopted with that step, the yardstick changes with it. The shortfall therefore carries its full weight before adoption.

The Council Went Looking for Small Village Sites

In May 2026, after its preferred options stage, the council consulted on additional preferred site allocations. It said they would give greater resilience to the development strategy and help it keep the five-year supply the government requires, and it pointed to the national aim of more sites of a hectare or less to diversify the housing market. The six proposed allocations came to 225 homes:

Bythorn, Home Farm: 15 homes on just under a hectare.
Catworth, Fruit Field: 25 homes.
Ellington, land west of Grafham Road: 35 homes.
Grafham, south of Village Farm: 35 homes.
Ramsey Forty Foot, Woodlane Farm: 25 homes.
Spaldwick, east of Stow Road: 90 homes on 6.1 hectares.

The same paper set out a reserve site, Sapley Park Garden Village, in two phases of 1,530 and 5,470 homes. Alongside the big new communities, the council wants modest village sites. Land inside a village's built-up area has a separate route under policy S4, which leans towards approval: a scheme there is refused only if its harm would substantially outweigh its benefits, whatever the housing numbers say. Our page on paddocks and small sites sets out what we look for at this scale.

Wastewater, Water Stress and Flooding

The plan describes the district as part of an area of serious water stress, but the harder limit locally is treating wastewater. The council's Stage 2 Water Cycle Study, updated in July 2026, finds:

Capacity gaps. Huntingdon (Godmanchester), Wyton and St Ives water recycling centres cannot serve all the growth planned in their catchments, and Anglian Water reports no current capacity for growth at Brampton, Elton, Huntingdon, Needingworth, Somersham or Tilbrook.
Upgrades planned. Growth schemes for St Neots and Flag Fen are programmed for 2025 to 2030. Work at other constrained centres needs funding in the 2030 to 2035 price review, which the study says cannot be guaranteed.
Tighter water use. It recommends new homes be built to 85 litres per person per day where viable, against 110 in the Building Regulations.
Supply. The Environment Agency had doubted Cambridge Water could meet demand without harming waterbodies, and objected on that basis to large schemes in South Cambridgeshire. The company addressed this in its final plan in March 2025.

The council's guide adds that 4 of the district's 34 water recycling centres already exceed their permit limits and 3 more are likely to, which is partly why the plan phases delivery. The catchment a site drains to matters as much as the field, and a scheme near St Ives or Somersham may need to wait on works.

Flood Risk

The plan itself recognises the high vulnerability of parts of the district to a variety of flooding sources. In November 2025 the council, the Environment Agency and the county council as lead local flood authority agreed the methods for the plan's detailed flood assessment, including a proxy for climate change, and agreed that risk from unmodelled watercourses should be assessed at the site-specific stage. So a field beside a drain or brook needs its own study early. How the sequential test works is covered in our flood risk and development land guide.

The Land We Look for in Huntingdonshire

Fields of 2 acres or more against the built edge of St Neots, Huntingdon, St Ives, Ramsey or Bury.
Land beside service centres such as Brampton, Godmanchester, Kimbolton, Sawtry, Somersham or Yaxley.
Village sites of around a hectare, the scale the council sought in May 2026.
Land in Flood Zone 1, clear of river floodplain.
Farmyards and redundant buildings inside or on the edge of a village.
Holdings next to the large sites, where land can help with access, drainage or open space.

Where a site suits an application now, we prepare it in full; where it belongs in the plan, we build the evidence for examination and the next review. The cost is ours throughout, the option fixes your price at the outset, set higher than the land is worth today, and you keep farming or using the land until completion. Our how it works page shows each stage.

From the October Deadline to a New Plan in 2028

Comments Close, Then Submission

The council set a window from 16 September to 11.59pm on 28 October 2026 for representations on the pre-submission plan. Its Local Development Scheme, last updated on 18 May 2026, shows submission in December 2026, by the national deadline of 31 December 2026, examination from 2027 and adoption in early 2028. The council's call for sites closed on 31 January 2025, so from here the plan is tested for soundness.

The Next Supply Statement

The last statement came in the monitoring report of November 2025, with a base date of 1 April 2025. The next one, a year on, will again rest on the standard method while the 2019 plan remains the adopted one. We make no forecast, but closing a gap of 1,562 homes would take a large rise in deliverable sites.

The Housing Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. At 136%, the district is clear of all three triggers: an action plan under 95%, a 20% buffer under 85%, and a presumption of unmet need under 75%. Here it is the supply position that counts.

Reorganisation on Hold

On 7 September 2026 the government paused the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough proposals while it reviews the national programme, and confirmed that the May 2027 elections will use existing boundaries. The district council stays the planning authority and carries its plan to examination.

What This Means for Timing

Well placed edge-of-settlement land has its strongest footing before the new plan is adopted, while the shortfall stands.
Larger holdings are best prepared for examination and for the review that will follow.
Land inside villages can be looked at now, as it does not depend on the numbers.

Questions About Land in Huntingdonshire

Huntingdonshire builds more homes than it needs. Why would my field have a case now?

Since its plan turned five, the council is measured against a higher yearly figure, and on that basis it counts less than five years of land. That shortfall is evidence of unmet need under policy S5, which a well placed field beside a town or village can rely on.

My land near Kimbolton was not among the May 2026 village sites. Is that the end of it?

No. The plan now goes to examination, where the council must show its choices are sound, and a later review will need more land. Meanwhile an application can rest on the shortfall if the site fits the village. The stages ahead are set out in our call for sites and local plans guide.

Will wastewater capacity near St Ives or Somersham stop my site?

It is more likely to shape timing than to stop a good site. Where a works lacks headroom, homes may follow planned upgrades, and we design the drainage and phasing around that from the start.

I farm next to Alconbury Weald. Does that help?

It can. Land beside a large new community may offer access, drainage or open space the scheme needs, within the growth cluster the plan favours.

What if the new plan is adopted before my application is decided?

The balance may shift, as a new plan brings a new requirement. Our agreements continue while any application or appeal is being decided, so the work is not lost, and you owe nothing if permission is not secured.

Tell Us About Your Land in Huntingdonshire

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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.