Fundamentally the vision of the Growth Company is to nurture and grow greater Cambridge a global, future facing city. Clean, green and where you want to locate your international high tech science or tech company. Come here, invest in the UK choose Cambridge over Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, Boston….. the list goes on.

There is a public consultation about the Cambridge Growth Company, government’s proposed development corporation if you have views on growth and/or things you want to see here if government are imposing this level of growth on us please respond to the consultation.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/establishing-a-development-corporation-in-greater-cambridge

The Growth Company would seek to maximise and fast track the development of land and infrastructure in ‘greater Cambridge’ currently proposed to be Cambridge city plus all of South Cambridgeshire District Council area so not Bottisham but including Gamlingay and Linton. The consultation explains the proposal quite well and is relatively short but if you have strong views please respond whether or not you read the consultation.

That said in my view it worth thinking about what government wants and responding in those terms. Government is desperate to bring more money into the country via foreign investment. Government wants global businesses to locate research hubs or European headquarters here to fund the country’s public services.  Growing greater Cambridge is one of governments most important projects. 

This creates an opportunity for people who live here to speak very clearly about the issues we face.  Peter Freeman, chair of the Growth company, expressed it as ‘if government wants Cambridge to be the golden goose, Cambridge must be good enough’.   So the question is how do we make Cambridge good enough? What issues does Cambridge face that we see as local people.

Here are some of the things I will be commenting on, there are other things but areas such as water scarcity and sewage treatment are well picked up by other organisations.

Inequality – Cambridge is recognised as being one of the country’s most unequal cities. How will the Growth company tackle historic inequality, improve outcomes and reduce anti social behaviour and crime for people living in the north of Cambridge city? Getting north Cambridge right is critical to Cambridge feeling like an attractive place to locate.

Potholes and Roads – Road across the country are in a poor state, if you don’t fix our roads will international companies really take the country seriously? In particular a vision of Cambridgeshire with sparkling new towns and patched up old roads won’t work. Government must fix our roads.

NHS and healthcare – living near Addenbrookes is a double edge sword, people with complex conditions can get access to life saving treatments not available in other hospitals, but break your leg at the wrong time of day and A&E is completely overwhelmed. NHS and dental services must be invested in to meet local demand as Cambridge grows.

Schools – although the schools here deliver great results some of the buildings have serious maintenance issues such as regular flooding or historic buildings well past their intended use by date requiring millions to upgrade. Cambridgeshire’s schools are historically underfunded a Growth company must find ways to modernise our school buildings.

Village congestion many of the villages close to Cambridge city have challenges exacerbated by the quantity of traffic driving through them every day often with Victorian road layouts.   Fixing theses issues costs serious money.  In the current system you only get money when development happens in your place. The Growth company has already said ‘it won’t be able to do everything’ but it needs to fix these historic problems around Cambridge city for Cambridge to continue to work.

Homes particularly for our young people -as rules around renting have got more rigorous and demand increased it feels as though it has got even harder for the young people both local and those who come to study and work here to find somewhere to live.  Solutions are needed to housing issues across the board. We need far more affordable decent housing for people aged 18-30. And more affordable housing for all.

Green spaces -unlike Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire does not have three areas of outstanding natural beauty in the county so it is absolutely vital that we preserve the nature we do have, improve access to nature and make sure the county feels like a great place to live, abundant with life.  People want to live in places where nature thrives and everyone has access to high quality green spaces. Nature must be at the heart of what happens and not an after thought.

Don’t price local people out – there have got be affordable places for local people to live, work and run businesses.

Public transport – currently we have a mayor, based in Huntingdon, obsessed with Peterborough who is spending a good deal of potential money for buses on free parking in Peterborough and St Neots. The current system is completely dysfunctional. If you think of a thriving European city it will have an excellent public transport network – we need an excellent public transport system.

There are also issues around energy supply and water and many other things.

Have your say on government’s growth ambitions for Cambridge before it’s too late

Consultation closes 1 April 2026

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/establishing-a-development-corporation-in-greater-cambridge