Cambridgeshire council area

Selling Land in South Cambridgeshire

South Cambridgeshire wraps around Cambridge with a ring of villages, a Green Belt covering about a quarter of the district and new towns at Northstowe, Waterbeach and Cambourne. It delivered 148% of the homes the government says it needed and reports 7.83 years of housing land, so the route for any piece of land depends on where it sits: inside a village, in the Green Belt, or beside a new town.

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Villages, New Towns and a Green Belt Ring Around Cambridge

South Cambridgeshire District Council covers the countryside on every side of Cambridge, from Waterbeach, Cottenham and Willingham in the north to Sawston, Linton and Melbourn in the south, and out west to Cambourne, Papworth Everard and Gamlingay.

A quarter in the Green Belt. The 2018 Local Plan says around 25% of the district is Green Belt, and the councils' Green Belt Assessment counted 23,230 hectares of it in South Cambridgeshire in March 2019, against 970 in the city.
Far ahead on delivery. The district built 4,474 homes against the 3,032 needed in the Housing Delivery Test 2025, a result of 148%.
Land in hand. The councils' September 2026 addendum finds 7.83 years of deliverable housing land from 1 April 2026.
An ageing plan and a joint successor. The South Cambridgeshire Local Plan, adopted in September 2018, provided for 19,500 homes and 22,000 jobs between 2011 and 2031. The Greater Cambridge Local Plan, prepared with the city council, was published for consultation in August 2026.
Thirteen neighbourhood plans. Parishes from Cottenham and Waterbeach to Foxton, Gamlingay and West Wickham have made neighbourhood plans.

Three questions decide most sites here: where the village sits in the council's hierarchy, whether the land is in the Green Belt, and how it relates to a new settlement.

South 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
148%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
7.83 years
Five years or more of deliverable housing land. Position at 1 April 2026, measured against the standard method, 1,204 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by South Cambridgeshire District Council, through Greater Cambridge Shared Planning.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
4,474
of 3,032 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
September 2018
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Updated
Greater Cambridge Local Plan: final consultation closed 25 September 2026; submission planned December 2026
Checked source

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.

More Than Five Years of Land, Half of It From Four Big Sites

Until this autumn the two councils reported a single supply figure for Greater Cambridge. Their housing land supply addendum of September 2026 now counts each district on its own, partly because the government issues a separate delivery result for each. The district's sum is this:

From the councils' September 2026 addendum on housing trajectory and land supply.
South Cambridgeshire, 2026 to 2031	Figure in the addendum
Annual housing need (government standard method)	1,204 homes
Five years of need	6,020 homes
Buffer	5%, adding 301 homes, as the district passed the delivery test by a wide margin
Requirement including the buffer	6,321 homes
Homes expected to be completed	9,895 homes
Supply	7.83 years

The 2018 plan's 19,500 homes over twenty years average 975 a year, so the standard method, used because the 2018 plans are more than five years old, asks for more. The addendum also says policies S/5 and S/12 of the district plan, the first of which set the 19,500 figure, now carry very limited weight. Even so, the councils count 3,574 homes more than the buffered requirement.

Where the Counted Homes Come From

Our grouping of the site rows in the same addendum.
Source of supply	Homes counted, 2026 to 2031
Northstowe	1,874
Waterbeach New Town	1,402
Cambourne West	1,264
Bourn Airfield new village	500
Sites on the Cambridge edge inside the district, including Eddington, Darwin Green, Cambridge East and land north of Cambridge North station	2,623
Village allocations, such as Fulbourn and Ida Darwin hospitals and land south of Babraham Road in Sawston	362
Unallocated sites with permission or a resolution to grant	1,509
Allowance for windfall sites	361

The four new settlements supply 5,040 of the 9,895 homes, a little over half, so their pace is what could move the figure. It would take the loss of more than a third of the counted homes to bring the district under five years, though.

Where Your Village Sits in the Hierarchy

The district ranks its villages and sets a rough maximum scheme size for building inside each. The 2018 plan does it through policies S/8 to S/11, and the draft Greater Cambridge plan keeps the idea in its settlement hierarchy policy, with a few changes of rank:

From policy S/SH of the Proposed Submission Greater Cambridge Local Plan (August 2026) and policies S/8 to S/11 of the South Cambridgeshire Local Plan 2018.
Tier	Examples	Indicative scheme size inside the village
Towns (new tier in the draft plan)	Cambourne, Northstowe, Waterbeach new town	No limit
Rural centres	Great Shelford and Stapleford, Histon and Impington, Sawston	No limit
Minor rural centres	Bar Hill, Comberton, Cottenham, Fulbourn, Gamlingay, Linton, Melbourn, Papworth Everard, Willingham and five others	Up to 30 homes
Group villages	Including Barrington, Bourn, Duxford, Foxton, Harston, Haslingfield, Meldreth, Over and Whittlesford	Up to 8, or about 15 on a single brownfield site
Infill villages	About fifty smaller villages	Not more than 2, or about 8 in very exceptional cases where a brownfield site is recycled

Two moves stand out. Cambourne, a rural centre in 2018, becomes a town, and Cottenham drops from rural centre to minor rural centre, with the 30-home guide that goes with it.

Inside the Line and Outside It

The line around each village, once its development framework, becomes its defined development extent in the draft plan. Inside it, policy S4 of the August 2026 national framework supports new homes unless the harm would substantially outweigh the benefits, and the tier sets the scale expected. Outside it, policy S/7 of the 2018 plan allows only allocations, including those in neighbourhood plans in force, uses that need a countryside setting, and schemes other policies support, such as rural exception sites of affordable homes for local people.

So a paddock outside an infill village has a narrow route, while one inside the line of a minor rural centre may take a modest scheme. Our page on paddocks and small sites explains how we look at plots of that size.

Green Belt Villages Within Five Miles of the City

The Green Belt reaches around three to five miles from the edge of Cambridge, and the councils' assessment lists 41 villages that are inset within it or sit on its outer edge, among them Girton, Histon and Impington, Fulbourn, Great Shelford, Sawston and Comberton.

The assessment judged land against local purposes, among them preventing communities around the city from merging. The national grey belt test is narrower: it asks whether land strongly serves checking sprawl, stopping neighbouring towns from merging or preserving historic towns, and the second speaks of towns, not villages. A gap between two villages may matter locally without failing that test.

Why Grey Belt Housing Is Hard Here Today

Grey belt housing still needs evidenced unmet need, usually shown by a delivery result under 75% or a supply below five years. South Cambridgeshire has neither, and with supply now counted district by district, the city's shortfall does not carry across the boundary. Policy S5, the national route for homes beyond settlement edges where need is unmet, does not reach Green Belt land at all.

That leaves three routes: previously developed land, such as a yard or former commercial site, which national policy treats differently from open fields; release through a plan; and, if the numbers ever turn, a grey belt application. The full grey belt tests, and the Golden Rules attached to them, are in our grey belt guide.

Northstowe, Waterbeach, Cambourne and the Land Around Them

The draft plan's development strategy puts most growth into new settlements and limits it in the rural area:

Northstowe, about 10,180 homes. Its draft policy records six outline permissions covering the site, schools already built and a bus-only route joined to the Guided Busway.
Waterbeach New Town, about 11,000 homes.
Bourn Airfield, a new village of 3,500 homes, all expected by 2045.
Cambourne North, a new allocation of about 13,000 homes around a new East West Rail station. The policy expects 2,550 homes by 2045, subject to the necessary water infrastructure, with building from 2034.
Grange Farm, beside the A11 and A1307, a new allocation of about 4,500 homes.

Near these places, land usually earns its place through what it does for the settlement: a second access, room for drainage or open space, or biodiversity gain.

Water Sets the Start Date

The water condition on Cambourne North is not a formality. Cambridge Water, working with Anglian Water, is preparing a 25-kilometre pipeline from Grafham Water to Cambridge, and says it intends to submit the planning application in 2026. Until new supply arrives, the largest sites move at its pace.

The Land We Look for in South Cambridgeshire

Plots, gardens and backland inside Sawston, Histon, Cottenham, Linton, Melbourn and the other larger villages.
Yards, depots and commercial land with lawful buildings, including around the Green Belt villages.
Land beside Northstowe, Waterbeach, Cambourne or Bourn Airfield that could give those schemes access, drainage or open space.
Larger holdings beyond the outer edge of the Green Belt that could be put forward in a future plan review.
Land in or next to a parish preparing a neighbourhood plan that might allocate sites.

Our farmland page covers larger holdings. Whichever route fits, we pay for every survey, drawing and application under an option at a price agreed at the start, set above what the land is worth today. You keep farming or using it until completion, and should permission be refused, the land stays yours with nothing to pay. How it works sets out each step.

South Cambridgeshire as the Joint Plan Goes to Examination

Submission in December

The final consultation on the Greater Cambridge Local Plan closed on 25 September 2026. The councils' Local Development Scheme, approved by both councils on 21 July 2026, sets submission for December 2026, and the councils' plan page expects the examination to begin in early 2027. On adoption it will replace the 2018 plans for both councils and every adopted area action plan.

The Competition for a Place in the Plan

Nearly 1,000 sites, able to take more than 115,000 homes, have been put to the councils since the 2019 call for sites, against a need the draft plan sets at 48,069 homes for 2024 to 2045. Most will not be chosen this time, and land with evidence in hand will be best placed for the next review. How that cycle runs is covered in our call for sites guide.

How Supply Is Measured Next

Until adoption, the standard method stays the yardstick. The addendum notes that national guidance provides for a joint figure only where councils share an adopted joint plan, and that together the two districts would have scored 121% in the latest delivery test. A joint figure would blend the district's surplus with the city's shortfall.

The Next Delivery Test

The Housing Delivery Test 2025 came out on 17 August 2026, and a new edition follows each year. At 148% the district faces none of its penalties. Those begin with an action plan under 95%, then a 20% buffer on the supply under 85%, and at under 75% policy S5 treats unmet need as proven.

Reorganisation on Hold

Plans for new unitary councils in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough were put on pause on 7 September 2026 as part of a government review, with the May 2027 elections held on existing boundaries. The district council remains the planning authority.

What This Means for Timing

Village plots and brownfield land can be reviewed now; neither depends on supply.
Open farmland is mostly a plan review matter, where early evidence counts.
Land near the new towns is best judged against their masterplans and the water timetable.

Questions About Land in South Cambridgeshire

My field backs onto a group village such as Harston or Foxton. Could it take more than eight homes?

Inside the village line, eight is the guide, with about fifteen on a single brownfield site. Outside it, the route is usually a future allocation, a neighbourhood plan or a rural exception scheme.

Cambridge City Council is short of housing land. Does that help my land in Girton or Fen Ditton?

Not at present. Supply is now counted council by council, and the district's own figure is above five years.

I own land next to Northstowe. Is it worth more because of the new town?

It can be, where it helps the town with access, drainage, open space or biodiversity gain. We read the masterplan and phasing to see what it can offer.

Our village has a neighbourhood plan. Does that change what I can do?

It can. A made neighbourhood plan is part of the development plan and may allocate sites or set design rules, so we read it alongside the district plan.

My land went into the Greater Cambridge call for sites and was not chosen. Is that the end of it?

No. The examination can still change the plan, and later reviews will need land. We can compare your land with the chosen sites and prepare the evidence it lacked.

Tell Us About Your Land in South 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.