Brownfield land in Cambridge: 127 sites on the register
Part of development land in Cambridgeshire — 627 sites across 6 councils.
Cambridge City Council has published 127 brownfield sites in Cambridge on its statutory land register — land the council itself has assessed as suitable for housing. Together they cover about 168.3 hectares with an estimated capacity of 4,778 dwellings.
Rank these sites with constraints netted off →
Largest sites on the Cambridge register
| Site | Hectares | Max dwellings | Planning status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cambridge Northern Fringe East | 52.64 | — | not yet |
| Cambridge East Land North of Cherry Hinton | 31.95 | 780 | permissioned |
| Clifton Road Area | 9.43 | 550 | not yet |
| MONSANTO, MARIS LANE, CAMBRIDGE, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, CB2 2LQ | 8.89 | 163 | permissioned |
| Development Land At 75 Cromwell Road Cambridge Cambridgeshire | 3.00 | 295 | permissioned |
| St. Edmund's College, CAMBRIDGE, CB3 0BN | 2.93 | — | permissioned |
| The Paddocks Trading Estate, Cherry Hinton Road | 2.80 | — | not yet |
| Housing allocation at, The Paddocks Trading Estate, Cherry Hinton Road, Cambridge, CB1 | 2.79 | 123 | not yet |
Source: Cambridge City Council brownfield land register, published via planning.data.gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are the council’s own. 8 further entries repeat the area of a site already listed (councils often record a whole site's area against each phase), so that land is counted once. 21 of the 127 sites (17%) state no dwelling capacity, so the capacity figure covers the 106 that do — the real total is higher.
What a brownfield register actually is
Every local planning authority in England is required to keep a register of previously-developed land it considers appropriate for residential development. Part 1 lists all such sites; Part 2 sites carry permission in principle.
What it is not: an entry is not planning permission, and it is not an offer to sell. The council assessing a site as suitable says nothing about whether the owner wants to sell it or what a scheme would actually get approved. England has no zoning — the Local Plan and the Use Classes Order decide what is achievable.
The registers are public and free. They are underused mainly because each authority publishes its own separately, in its own format, so comparing more than one area by hand is painful.
Working the Cambridge register properly
- Net off the constraints first. Green belt, Flood Zone 3 and listed buildings kill more register sites than anything else. Check before you fall in love with a line on a map.
- Treat the dwelling figure as the council’s opinion. 4,778 is what the council thinks Cambridge’s register could take — your scheme, your design and the Local Plan will move it.
- Price it off recorded sales. HM Land Registry Price Paid gives you what actually sold nearby; work the residual land value from there rather than from an asking price.
- Find the owner. Register sites are rarely advertised. Ownership status is listed, and Land Registry title records do the rest.
Questions this page answers
- Brownfield land register Cambridge
- Development land in Cambridge
- How much brownfield land is there in Cambridge?
- Where can I build houses in Cambridge?
- Cambridge land availability assessment
GoSiteHunt is an advertising and analysis platform, not a real estate agent or planning consultancy. Everything here is indicative screening from public data — not a valuation, not planning advice, and never a substitute for the council’s own records or your own professional advisers.