Land Availability Assessment and Sustainability Appraisal
Government policy asks that Local Plans provide enough land to meet the needs of future growth. They provide minimum figure for housing through a calculation called the standard method.
To ensure that our future growth needs are met in Huntingdonshire, we asked people to submit sites that may be considered suitable for development in the next local plan. You can find an interactive map with the sites on our website.
In response, 369 sites were proposed to the Council for various uses:
235 were for residential uses
49 were for commercial uses
74 were for mixed uses including, but not limited to, housing, employment and some infrastructure provision
2 were for renewable energy
7 were for natural / open space or biodiversity net gain
2 were for infrastructure
Of these, 12 were identified as strategic sites, defined as those with the capacity to deliver either over 3,000 homes or over 120,000 square metres of commercial floorspace.
Additionally, 83 of the submitted sites were 1 hectare or less in size.
We assessed these sites in our Land Availability Assessment documents (LAA) and a Sustainability Appraisal (SA).
We have assessed these sites in our Land Availability Assessment documents. There are 7 documents which cover different areas of the district.
Northern Huntingdonshire - Stilton, Folksworth & Washingley; Yaxley wards
North Eastern Huntingdonshire - Ramsey; Somersham; Warboys wards
Northern Central Huntingdonshire - Alconbury; Sawtry; the Stukeleys wards
Western Huntingdonshire - Great Staughton; Kimbolton wards
Central Huntingdonshire - Brampton; Godmanchester & Hemingford Abbots; Huntingdon wards
Eastern Huntingdonshire - Fenstanton; Hemingford Grey & Houghton; Holywell-cum-Needingworth; St Ives wards
Southern Huntingdonshire - Buckden; Great Paxton; St Neots wards
If you are not sure which sites to look at you can visit the Call for Sites map.
We have assessed all the sites, saying whether they have the potential to be suitable for allocation in our next Local Plan. Allocations are sites that are ‘earmaked’ for certain types of development and include criteria saying what would be acceptable on the site and what needs to be thought about.
We invite you to share your thoughts on the sites we've reviewed and if you agree with our assessments. If you like any of the sites, please let us know what makes them appealing to you. Additionally, we'd love to hear your suggestions on how these sites could be improved or what features they should include to make them strong development options.
It is important to note that we will not need all of these sites, the number of sites needed will be dependent on the number of homes and jobs we need and our growth strategy amongst other things. This is why responding to our Further Issues and Options consultation is also important as you can comment on these issues that will inform the future of Huntingdonshire and how and where sites may go across the district. We will also use additional evidence on topics such as flooding, infrastructure, climate change, transport to help inform the most sustainable location for development. These will be published as we continue through the local plan process on our website here.
How do I get involved?
The Local Plan Engagement 2024 is open from 18 September to 27 November 2024. You can participate in the consultation by visiting our online consultation platform here.