Cambridgeshire County Council is a major provider of infrastructure and services to support the needs of communities across the County. Demand for infrastructure is influenced by a range of factors, not least changes in population, which in large part is driven by new development.
Between 2011 and 2031, approximately 144,000 more people are projected to be living in Cambridgeshire. The Council must ensure that it can address adequately the needs of this growing population, for example by providing sufficient school places or appropriate social care for vulnerable people. A significant challenge for the Council is funding the services and facilities arising from development. Therefore to ensure that growth across the County is sustainable the Council, in partnership with the local planning authorities, will seek to ensure that new developments make appropriate contributions towards the infrastructure necessary to mitigate their impacts.
Against this background, the Council has prepared the Planning Obligations Strategy to:
- To provide guidance on what the Council will expect new developments to contribute towards, including relevant approaches to assessing and calculating need;
- To set out the Council's service areas and responsibilities, and the statutory and policy basis for seeking planning obligations for infrastructure and service provision.
