Approved at the Council meeting, 9 October 2025.

This council notes that:

• Cambridge data on completions of new homes, unused planning permissions and affordability ratios for rents and mortgages demonstrate the need to support the approach taken in the Greater Cambridge Housing Strategy and the Council’s Adopted Local Plan to identify housing needs that should be planned for, including requiring a high proportion of these to be affordable
• the need to rebalance the housing market is demonstrated by research indicating that high housing costs impose severe financial and mental stresses on residents, weaken the night time economy and increase social isolation
• there are significant challenges to regeneration on estates where large numbers of homes have been sold off through the right to buy, and this can make regeneration of some sites not financially viable for the council

It further notes that:

• Cambridge’s green spaces and wildlife habitats are essential for the wellbeing of residents, preserving biodiversity and increasing resilience of climate habitats, as highlighted by the Tree Canopy Project Report [PDF, 6MB]
• the Planning and Infrastructure Bill proposes a national levy that developers would be required to fund, enabling funding to be pooled towards achieving wider ecological benefits

This council believes that:

• the best way for the council to address issues around housing needs is to be an exemplar developer and builder and to support the Joint Housing Strategy and the model embedded in the Draft Greater Cambridge Local Plan currently being prepared for members consideration, which will update the housing need and identify additional sites necessary to respond to that need
• the introduction of Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) has been a positive step forward in planning policy. It ensures that developers are required to leave nature in a better state than before, creating measurable improvements for wildlife and for communities
• Shared planning has successfully implemented council policies to encourage developers to deliver BNG of 20% rather than the legal minimum of 10%

This council requests that:

• the government follow through the commitment made in its response to the consultation on reforming the right to buy to amend the agreements made with local authorities under Section 11(6) of the Local Government Act 2003 on the use of Right to Buy receipts to simplify the rules and ensure that a greater proportion of receipts are used to deliver new social and affordable housing, extend the existing flexibilities in spending receipts indefinitely and, permit councils to combine Right to Buy receipts with grant funding for affordable housing to accelerate delivery of replacement homes
• the government maintains and increases protection for the environment and biodiversity and ensures that future planning policy works to complement and not undermine existing policy measures that protect and enhance local and site specific biodiversity

Action

Accordingly, this council resolves to continue to contribute to the development of government policy through responses to consultations and regular exchanges of views with local MPs.