OxCam, CaMKOx, The Arc, Silicon Fen, the Growth Corridor – plans for the area between Cambridge and Oxford have been long discussed, but at last it seems that we may be moving to action. It has been talked about frequently over the years I’ve been in Parliament since 2015, but it has been a stop-go conversation. Plans for a major road link were pursued by the previous Government and then dropped. East-West rail has had a bumpy ride and faced cancellation at one point but is now making serious progress. And this year, with the publication of a growth prospectus by the Chancellor; the appointment of Patrick Vallance to oversee the corridor; the new theme park being developed by Universal Studios, and a serious commitment to the Cambridge Growth Company, it seems that the long-recognised potential for this area may be about to be turned into reality. There is no shortage of ideas about how we can best move forward.
The SuperCluster Board which includes some of the country’s leading FTSE 100 and privately owned companies including AstraZeneca, GSK, Airbus and AVEVA, investors, and Britain’s top universities have welcomed the ambition to double the economy of the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge region by 2035. Among their key asks, they are looking for Taskforce-led governance, modelled after the successful Vaccine Taskforce, embedding a permanent partnership between government (local and national), funding bodies, industry, and academia to coordinate delivery. They want the Taskforce to be able to provide consistent decision-making across government that prioritises the Growth Corridor in national-level policy areas, empowering it to instruct Departments to act where existing rules prevent delivery. It’s a big ask, but crucial, as the governance issue really matters. I recall Sir John Armitt from the National Infrastructure Commission when they looked at this challenge some years ago reflecting on how hard it is to co-ordinate when dealing with some 22 local government organisations along the corridor.
But the prize is significant. The University of Cambridge point out that together, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have produced over 400 spin -outs – the highest of of any UK academic institutions, and that in the last decade the University of Cambridge has curated nine unicorn businesses, and its spinout companies have raised over £3bn of investment from private venture capital. But they also highlight the need for skills, seeking collaboration across the corridor to ensure a pipeline of talent is available and that those living across the corridor benefit from the opportunities. They want to ensure that there is provision for training the highly skilled technicians needed to support world-leading research, who are critical to everything the University does, and vital to support emerging spinouts.
Maintaining public support and confidence is critical and Cambridge City council rightly make the case for sustained and meaningful engagement with local residents and the need for significant investment in social housing, including council housing. They also highlight the need for the corridor to be environmentally sustainable and seek support for a ‘doubling nature’ target.
I think there is little doubt that the public will expect something special from any future developments and while for some it could be the new theme park, others will want guarantees that these will be high-quality developments with environmental sustainability and nature gain as core features.There was a widespread welcome for the recent Ministerial announcement about a new forest, and that enthusiasm needs to be nurtured as more details emerge.
Business-led organisation Cambridge Ahead highlight the many existing challenges that have to be faced including the way in which the infrastructure gap is constraining growth in the corridor. That includes issues around fresh water supply, waste water treatment capacity, electricity grid capacity constraints and intra-city regional transport connectivity, all major challenges within themselves. So, the test for the growth corridor is to show that it can meet many of the challenges that we see elsewhere, but to demonstrate that there are benefits to be gained by doing this across a wider area. After the stop-go decade, I believe that there is the opportunity to generate real enthusiasm along the corridor, and realise that potential, not just for the corridor, but for the UK economy as a whole. So the question is, can we make it happen? Will it be different this time, will this be the decade when we move to action?
