Development land in Cambridgeshire: 627 brownfield sites
The 6 planning authorities in Cambridgeshire have published 627 sites on their brownfield land registers — land the councils themselves assessed as suitable for housing. Together: about 4,189 hectares and an estimated 41,017 dwellings of capacity.
Rank these sites with constraints netted off →
Which councils hold the land
Every authority publishes its register separately, so these totals exist nowhere else. Click a council for its full register.
| Authority | Sites | Hectares | Max dwellings |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Cambridgeshire | 205 | 1,244 | 22,326 |
| Cambridge | 127 | 168 | 4,778 |
| East Cambridgeshire | 125 | 163 | 1,744 |
| Peterborough | 72 | 2,339 | 7,125 |
| Fenland | 60 | 128 | 1,355 |
| Huntingdonshire | 38 | 147 | 3,689 |
The five Cambridgeshire districts plus the Peterborough unitary.
Largest sites in Cambridgeshire
| Site | Authority | Hectares | Max dwellings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land To The West Of London Road Peterborough | Peterborough | 745.3 | 2349 |
| Hampton Leys London Road Peterborough | Peterborough | 276.4 | 866 |
| Waterbeach Barracks and Airfield Site, Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire | South Cambridgeshire | 265.8 | 6500 |
| Nothstowe Phase 3 - Land at, Oakington Barracks, Ramptoon Road, Longstanton, Cam | South Cambridgeshire | 194.9 | 4000 |
| Bourn Airfield New Village (Policy SS/7) | South Cambridgeshire | 171.8 | 3500 |
| Land To The South Of Tranche VG9 County Road Hampton Vale Peterborough | Peterborough | 166.0 | 350 |
| Nothstowe Phase 3 - Land at, Oakington Barracks, Ramptoon Road, Longstanton, Cam | South Cambridgeshire | 150.3 | 3500 |
| Station West Opportunity Area Midland Road West Town Peterborough | Peterborough | 105.1 | 200 |
| Former Peterborough District Hospital Thorpe Road Peterborough | Peterborough | 93.0 | 287 |
| Station East Opportunity Area Station Road Peterborough | Peterborough | 92.8 | 400 |
| Northminster Opportunity Area Peterborough | Peterborough | 89.1 | 150 |
| RAF Alconbury | Huntingdonshire | 84.0 | 1848 |
Source: the councils’ own brownfield land registers, published via planning.data.gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0. 5 sites in Cambridgeshire record an area that cannot be right (the register's hectares column sometimes holds square metres) and are left out of the hectare total. 35 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. 152 of the 627 sites (24%) state no dwelling capacity, so the capacity figure covers the 475 that do — the real total is higher.
Before you get attached to one
A register entry is not planning permission and not an offer to sell. It records that the council thinks housing could work there. Whether the owner agrees is a separate conversation, and whether a scheme gets approved is a third.
- Net off the constraints first. Green belt, Flood Zone 3 and listed buildings kill more register sites than anything else.
- The dwelling figure is the council’s opinion. 41,017 across Cambridgeshire is a planning-policy estimate, not a set of designs.
- Price it off recorded sales. HM Land Registry Price Paid tells you what actually sold; work the residual land value from there.
- England has no zoning. The Local Plan and the Use Classes Order decide what is achievable, application by application.
How to read a register entry properly → · Five ways to find UK development land →
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 councils’ own records or your own professional advisers.