Greater Cambridge Development Corporation

Establishment Board meeting - 30th July 2026
Documents to follow

Future Board meeting dates will be agreed and published in September.

The Greater Cambridge Development Corporation has its own governance and interim Board, appointed by the Secretary of State. Peter Freeman CBE has been appointed as chair of the Development Corporation.

The Establishment Terms of Reference were ratified on 30th July 2026. The next Board meeting will take place in the early autumn. Further details, including the agenda and location will be announced in due course.

The interim Board brings together independent expertise and locally democratically elected leadership, ensuring both specialist knowledge and local insight are represented from the outset.

Working with the interim Board, key officers have been appointed to provide operational leadership and ensure appropriate oversight of the Development Corporation set-up and initial activities.

David Hill is appointed as the Development Corporation's Chief Executive and will join in September. He will be the Development Corporation's Accountable Officer.

Interim board

Name	Role
Peter Freeman CBE	Chair
Baroness Sally Morgan of Huyton	Deputy Chair
Professor Sir John Aston	Member
Mayor Paul Bristow	Member
Richard de Cani	Member
Ros Kerslake CBE	Member
Cllr Lucy Nethsingha	Member
Paul Schofield	Member
Cllr Bridget Smith	Member
Cllr Katie Thornburrow	Member

Officers

Name	Role
David Hill	Chief Executive (joining September)
Beth Dugdale	Deputy Chief Executive and Interim Accountable Officer
James Butters	General Counsel
Gareth Caller	Finance Director

A full public appointments process for a permanent Board will commence in the coming months. Local democratically elected leaders will be invited to join the full Board.

Board papers, agendas, minutes and governance documents will be published save for confidential and commercially sensitive items.

As of 23 July 2026, the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation is a legally established public body with the statutory powers and delivery capabilities available to urban development corporations. These include:

• Land assembly
• Infrastructure delivery
• Financial and investment activities
• A coordinating role, working with government, infrastructure providers and investors to help unlock growth and infrastructure delivery.

The government has confirmed that its intention to grant the Development Corporation planning powers covering both the determination of planning applications for strategic development and plan-making powers.

At present, there is no change to current town planning arrangements. Any transfer of planning powers would require a separate Statutory Instrument, known as the Planning Functions Order, which would set out the proposed planning functions and implementation and transition arrangements.

The government is expected to prepare and lay the Order before Parliament in autumn 2026.

At this stage and subject to the drafting and Parliamentary approvals process it is anticipated that

• The Development Corporation would take on development management powers for strategic developments (above a threshold of 250 dwellings and 5,000 sq.m commercial space) from 2027.
• Plan-making powers would transfer to the development corporation, but it is intended that the Secretary of State will issue a direction preventing the Development Corporation from exercising plan making powers until a later date.

Until the necessary legislation is made and powers come into effect, all planning applications will continue to be handled by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service (GCSP), as they are today.

The establishment of the Development Corporation marks the beginning of a long-term programme to support the sustainable growth of Greater Cambridge.

Over the coming months, the team that has led work on Greater Cambridge through the Cambridge Growth Company will work through the Development Corporation to continue to build our team and work with partners to unlock and accelerate growth across Greater Cambridge.

When was the decision to set up a Development Corporation taken and who was involved?

Government announced its intention to consult on a centrally-led Urban Development Corporation in October 2025, subject to statutory consultation with local authorities, residents and businesses in the proposed area. The consultation took place between February and April 2026. The government's analysis of the responses and next steps was issued on 3rd June 2026.

As is usual procedure with the set up of statutory bodies, a statutory instrument was laid before parliament and debated in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords who were able to scrutinise the legislative basis for establishing the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation.

How does the Development Corporation differ from the Cambridge Growth Company?

The Greater Cambridge Development Corporation is a new statutory delivery body with powers including land assembly, infrastructure delivery and investment powers, overseen by an independent Board, appointed by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The Cambridge Growth Company was set up as the government's interim delivery body, and was established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Homes England, tasked with laying the foundations for long-term delivery.

The Development Corporation will build on the work of the Cambridge Growth Company, and the interim Board will review and approve the Development Corporation's Business Plan

The Development Corporation is independent of Homes England, although it will continue to be supported operationally with services and staff through a Service Level Agreement with Homes England. Therefore, the team that has delivered the work programme to date through CGC will remain in place to take forward the work of the Development Corporation.

Is Peter Freeman now Chair of the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation?

Yes. Peter Freeman has been appointed Chair of the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation, providing continuity of leadership. The Board is responsible for providing strategic leadership and oversight as the Development Corporation delivers its programme of work. David Hill will join as Chief Executive in the autumn, leading the organisation's day-to-day operations.

Many people raised concerns about local communities being blocked out of decision-making, and the loss of local democratic accountability. How is the government addressing these concerns?

The Development Corporation is intended as a joint national and local endeavour, combining local insight and input from locally democratically elected representatives with national leadership, powers and investment.

Local involvement is integral to this approach. That is why local representation, participation and transparency form one of the Development Corporation's six core objectives and will be embedded in how it operates.

As part of this commitment, we will create structured engagement forums to provide meaningful opportunities for residents, businesses, community organisations and local partners to help shape priorities and inform proposals as they develop.

Local democratic representation will also be embedded in our governance arrangements, helping to ensure that decisions reflect the needs, priorities and aspirations of communities across Greater Cambridge. The Board will include four democratically elected local leaders, representing Cambridge City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.

There will also be local representation on the Planning Committee when planning powers are transferred to the Development Corporation, subject to parliamentary approval process.

Where can I find information about the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation and how can I get in touch?

Information about the Development Corporation's work, governance, publications and future activities will continue to be published here until dedicated communications channels are in place.

If you have an enquiry about the Greater Cambridge Development Corporation, please contact GCDCEnquiries@homesengland.gov.uk. Enquiries received through this mailbox will be directed to the team supporting the Development Corporation.

How long will the Development Corporation exist?

The Greater Cambridge Development Corporation is envisaged to operate for at least 25 years, providing the sustained focus needed to plan and deliver the intended transformational change.

To ensure ongoing effectiveness and value for money, the Development Corporation will be subject to a review 18 months to 2 years after its establishment, with regular monitoring throughout its lifespan.

Will the Development Corporation be given planning powers?

The government has confirmed that its intention to grant planning powers to the Development Corporation. Subject to further parliamentary approval, it is anticipated that, from 2027, the Development Corporation will be empowered to exercise development management powers for strategic development sites immediately. However, the government intends to delay implementing plan-making powers. The Secretary of State will decide when the restriction on the Development Corporation's ability to exercise its plan-making powers should be lifted. We anticipate that to be once the draft local plan has been adopted, subject to the public examination. This approach was taken as having an up-to-date Local Plan is identified the fastest route to supporting growth in the area. The Development Corporation will continue to work with the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service to support the emerging Local Plan through to adoption and accelerate its delivery.

The Development Corporation is meant to focus on strategic sites, so why will it be determining residential planning applications of 250 homes?

The Development Corporation will be there to help deliver nationally significant growth. Taking an infrastructure first approach, it will focus on major strategic development sites, which are often difficult to deliver, involve working with multiple partners and come with significant infrastructure requirements.

The government acknowledges suggestions from respondents that thresholds should be set either on the upper end or higher than the consulted range. Thresholds for non-residential development have therefore been set above the consulted range, at a minimum of 5,000 sqm, and simplified by removing references to use classes.

For housing, the government recognises that most large and strategic developments will typically involve more than 1,000 homes. However, a lower threshold of 250 homes will be used. This is because the Development Corporation can choose to pass applications on smaller or non-strategic schemes to the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service, but the shared planning service cannot pass decisions to the Development Corporation. Setting a lower threshold ensures that the Development Corporation can take decisions on strategic sites where needed, while allowing non-strategic schemes to continue to be determined by GCSP. In practice, most developments between 250 and 1,000 homes are expected to be decided by the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service.

Many respondents to the consultation pointed out that size alone does not always define what counts as a strategic site. The government agrees and plans to publish a clearer definition of “sites of strategic importance” at a later date, with the minimum thresholds providing a backstop.

The government will introduce legislation in the autumn to grant planning functions to the Development Corporation. This will confirm when it will take on development management decision making responsibilities, which subject to parliamentary approval process, is not expected to happen before 2027.

Overall, the intention is to clearly define what counts as a strategic site. This should reinforce the expectation that the Development Corporation will remain focused on the delivery of strategic scale development.

Who should developers be engaging on planning applications?

All developers should continue to liaise with the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service (GCSP) as they do today.

We recognise the importance of having well-defined working arrangements with the GCSP Service. We are committed to reaching a formal agreement with GCSP for efficient development management administrative processes, including arrangements for processing and delegating decisions and drawing on the specialist advice available within the GCSP to inform decisions or applications for strategic scale applications. The Development Corporation will work with GCSP to notify applicants and developers when the Development Corporation's development management powers will commence.

Isn't this going to be a free for all for developers to gain planning permission for sites that are poor quality and in the wrong place?

The government expects the Development Corporation to be an exemplar in sustainable, high-quality development and place making.

The emerging Greater Cambridge Local Plan is an ambitious document and the Development Corporation will support the progression of the local plan, helping to accelerate delivery of the plan. Greater Cambridge has the potential to make an even greater contribution to the UK economy, an ambition shared by many partners. Successor plans will build positively on the foundations set out in the emerging local plan.

The Development Corporation is there to help deliver infrastructure-led growth. As part of its evidence gathering and planning work, the Development Corporation will assess the most sustainable locations for growth. Any planning decisions taken by the Development Corporation will need to have regard to the relevant development plan and national planning policy, including policies relating to Green Belt protection, in the same way that the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service does.

How does the Development Corporation sit alongside the Spatial Development Strategy being brought forward by the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority?

The Development Corporation will closely collaborate with the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority on its emerging Spatial Development Strategy, which will set out a vision for growth across the wider region.

The Development Corporation will work closely with neighbouring local councils and planning authorities, engaging collaboratively to ensure that growth delivers positive outcomes across the wider area.