Policy GP/PP: People and place responsive design

1. Development proposals are required to sustain and enhance the unique qualities of their local context and the Greater Cambridge area. Development proposals will be supported that: 

  a. Respond to Greater Cambridge’s communities by: 

    i. Identifying and responding positively to their context, including existing physical features and characteristics of natural, historic, social or local importance. 

    ii. Meeting the principles of inclusive and healthy design, and in particular meeting the needs of disabled people, older people and those with young children. 

    iii. Being designed to remove the threat or perceived threat of crime and improve community safety, especially for those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act. 

    iv. Empower people and communities through community engagement to inform design decisions. 

  b. Improve Greater Cambridge’s connectivity by: 

    i. Being well connected to, and integrated with, the immediate locality and wider area including existing or planned social, environmental, and transport infrastructure. 

    ii. Maximise active travel through new and improved walking and cycle routes. 

  c. Support the climate emergency response by: 

    i. Being designed to be long lasting and low impact in delivery and maintenance without compromising design quality. 

  d. Enhance the character of Greater Cambridge by: 

    i. Having a positive impact on their setting in terms of location on the site, height and skyline, scale and form, townscape and landscape impacts and available views, to create a legacy of high-quality buildings and spaces in Greater Cambridge. 

    ii. Using appropriate local characteristics to inform the siting, massing, scale, form, materials and landscape design of new development. 

    iii. Ensuring that proposals for any tall buildings are of exceptional quality and ensure that the character or appearance of Cambridge, as a city of spires and towers emerging above the established tree line, is maintained. 

The National Planning Policy Framework states that, ‘The creation of high quality, beautiful and sustainable buildings and places is fundamental to what the planning and development process should achieve.’ Greater Cambridge has a strong history of delivering well designed places with many award-winning schemes in Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire. Since 2008, the core themes covering Community, Connectivity, Climate and Character set out in the Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth, have been used to clearly identify the expected quality of new developments. 

Greater Cambridge is a place of varied and subtle character, from the historic core of the Cambridge urban area to emerging business clusters, the biodiverse fen landscapes to the north and rolling countryside to the south, the historic villages and new towns. Aiming for design excellence is crucial for all types of development, whether building or open space, regardless of tenure, use or ownership. Innovative, high quality design must be realised to ensure that new development respects and integrates with existing character, assets and settings, while also constituting high quality architecture. This is a key factor for successful placemaking as well as a key challenge. 

Where appropriate planning applications must include a design and access statement, relevant to the scale and context of the proposed development, that addresses the relevant policy requirements. 

The National Design Guide and National Model Design Code stipulates that local planning authorities should prepare area-based character assessments, local design guides or codes, consistent with these and tailored to the circumstances of the local area following community involvement to reflect local character and design preferences. The Councils have a range of design guidance already in place, ranging from policies on tall buildings and skyline included in the Cambridge Local Plan, the South Cambridgeshire District Design Guide, to individual village designs guides. We will be considering how we update our guidance to reflect the new approaches introduced nationally.

To help meet this challenge, Greater Cambridge has established The Greater Cambridge Design Review Panel formed from reviewing existing Design Review services at both Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Councils, to support its aspirations to raise design quality across the Local Plan area, and has conducted a site typologies study to understand, protect, utilise and enhance the valued characteristics of different areas in the plan. These should ensure that the key aspects and qualities of the built form and varying contexts across the Greater Cambridge area. 

• Greater Cambridge Local Plan: Topic Paper 5: Great Places
• Cambridgeshire Quality Charter for Growth

We will consider all comments while developing the next version of the Local Plan.

All comments must be received by 30 January 2026 at 5pm.