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Cambridge City Council

Housing and related strategies

Housing Strategy

Our Greater Cambridge Housing Strategy for 2019 to 2023 has been developed jointly with South Cambridgeshire District Council.

The strategy includes:

  • An introduction – what the strategy is about
  • A high-level vision statement – what we are trying to achieve
  • The context within which the strategy has been developed

It then details the councils’ key priorities under three main objectives:

  • Building the right homes that people need and can afford to live in
  • Enabling people to live settled lives
  • Building strong partnerships

An action plan for the first year is shown in Annex 1.

Our thanks to everybody who took part in the public consultation that informed the strategy.

Thank you also to those who helped shape our three new policies in 2021 (Annexes 9 to 11).

The Greater Cambridge Housing Strategy replaced our Interim Housing Strategy Statement 2017 [PDF, 2MB].

First Homes scheme

The government’s First Homes scheme helps to provide affordable home ownership for first time buyers.

We have agreed a joint statement with South Cambridgeshire District Council on how we will deal with the scheme locally. A separate issues and options paper provides more background.

We will review this approach when the Greater Cambridge Housing Strategy is refreshed in 2023 and as part of the work on a new Greater Cambridge Local Plan.

Sub-Regional Housing Action Plan

The Cambridge Sub-Regional Housing Board (CRHB) works on strategic housing issues across the seven districts within the Cambridge housing sub-region.

It covers Cambridge, South Cambridgeshire, East Cambridgeshire, Fenland, Huntingdonshire, Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury.

The group's action plan is reviewed regularly. It is available through the CRHB page on the Cambridgeshire Insight website. 

Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy

Our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy sets out our five-year plan to deal with homelessness and rough sleeping in Cambridge.

We wrote the strategy following extensive consultation, including with statutory and voluntary agencies. It draws on the findings of our Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Review, from 2019.

We developed the strategy during a year of great change and uncertainty about the medium to long-term impact of coronavirus. Early indications suggest the impact on the economy might cause greater housing stress and more people losing their home. But we see some new opportunities and an increased incentive to develop bold new solutions, especially in the area of homelessness prevention. We have tried to reflect this in our strategy.

Tenancy strategy

Our tenancy strategy sets out the issues registered providers must consider when deciding:

  • what type of tenancies to offer
  • the circumstances in which they will offer each type of tenancy
  • the length of any fixed-term tenancy
  • the circumstances in which they will grant a new tenancy when a fixed term tenancy comes to an end

Further information

Other relevant strategies, policies and plans can be found on our council policies, plans and strategies section.

For further information about our housing related strategies, email housinginformation@cambridge.gov.uk.

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