Comment
A new Urban Development Corporation for Greater Cambridge: a welcome move for the region
We are pleased to note yesterday’s launch of the long- awaited consultation by MHCLG into the strategic, long-term growth of Greater Cambridge, for the period to 2050. This follows various Conservative and Labour government announcements over the past few years regarding the opportunity presented by the region. We now have proposals as to how this could be realised – through the creation of an Urban Development Corporation (UDC), a powerful delivery vehicle for Greater Cambridge.
The public consultation takes the form of 13 ‘key questions’, and runs for eight weeks until 1 April 2026. It follows hot on the heels of the recent consultation into the Regulation 18 version of the Draft Greater Cambridge Local Plan, which closed on Friday 30 January.
This MHCLG consultation is, however, of a completely different dimension, both in terms of its legislative scope and the scale of its growth ambition. As such, it is specifically focused on forming a powerful new and independent delivery vehicle for Greater Cambridge, and seeks views on the creation of an Urban Development Corporation (UDC).
The new UDC for Cambridge will cover the existing geographical areas of both South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City, but it will have its own significant legal powers and resources. The modus operandi of the UDC will be to fully unlock the latent economic potential of Greater Cambridge, which has hitherto been constrained by severe infrastructure deficits, notably in terms of water, sewerage and strategic public transport provision.
The centrally-led UDC will also be a statutory body, authorised by Parliament by Statutory Instrument to deliver strategic development in the national interest. Therefore, in common with other UDCs in the UK, it will have significant funding and borrowing powers, alongside the power to directly deliver infrastructure, assemble land, prepare local plans and grant planning permission.
It is therefore likely to bring about genuine transformational change in the Greater Cambridge area. Critically, unlike its current forebears, it will possess the full range of necessary legislative powers, with the capability and capacity to deliver on its plans and strategies by co-ordinating the complex infrastructure delivery needs of the area across multiple agencies, councils, landowners, and delivery partners.
The emerging Local Plan for Greater Cambridge is heavily constrained in terms of its scale and ambition. Put simply that emerging plan cannot, in isolation, directly address the existing key constraints of the area. However, following the adoption of the emerging local plan, the new UDC will create its own long-term spatial plan, which should significantly upscale the quantum and rate of delivery of further new growth, and through supporting infrastructure delivery, allow the unlocking of the growth opportunity in the region.
We therefore welcome the latest consultation and the creation of a new, purpose-built, delivery vehicle for the area, with a strong growth mandate and the legislative and financial clout to unlock the full potential of the sub-region.
This event marks the start of a significant new chapter for Greater Cambridge, finally addressing some long-term barriers to allow for a step change in growth, so that the area can realise its full national (and international) potential.
We will be acting for clients to fully engage with the UDC consultation and look forward to also engaging with the UDC on relevant new spatial growth options in due course. If you would like to get involved in that response, please contact Steve Kosky or Ellie Drozdowska.
In the interim, we will continue to monitor events and will comment in further depth on the main topic issues under consideration, as the public consultation progresses.
5 February 2026