The Council has published its Core Strategy "issues and options" paper, which will be discussed by the Council's Development Plan scrutiny committee on 29 May.
The Council proposed a number of "strategic priority" options to support housing provision in the area. Included in the options was "significantly increased levels of urban and Green Belt growth", which proposed setting a target of building 25,000 homes, including 12,000 homes on Green Belt land.
The Council indicates that it may increase the levels of affordable housing. "The Council currently requires all new residential developments over a certain threshold (0.5ha or 15 dwellings) to include at least 40% affordable housing, but evidence suggests that there is a need to provide more," the options paper said.
"A key issue for consideration at this stage is to explore the principle of whether there should be more development on the edge of Cambridge and whether exceptional circumstances exist to justify the release of further land from the Green Belt to meet the housing and employment needs of the area," the Council said.
If councillors agree next week, the options will be put out for public consultation for six weeks until 27 July. The Council would like to submit the final plan for examination at the end of the summer, which would enable to Council to adopt its Core Strategy in early 2014.
