Dreams do not deliver without foundations. On the 6th March 2024 the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities issued Guidance, under the title The Case for Cambridge. And it makes good reading; raises great hopes; and contains some credibility which is rooted in market reality. Actually I endorse most of the paean to. Cambridge. The fact that I could write a similar market driven paean of praise for the Thames Valley, and did so 30 years ago, or today for Oxford does not diminish the Case for Cambridge. Increasing the size of Cambridge three fold over a generation will be an important step to preserve and grow the nation’s future prosperity. Wisely done, it could catapult Cambridge into a new league of prosperity. But it cannot happen without local support, without local control and without connectivity. And these building blocks, which are essential receive very little attention in the Case published two weeks ago.
When Michael Gove floated this enticing dream last summer I welcomed it, with warnings. At last, it was the first piece of forward thinking by a government after thirteen years of housing policy myopia. So hurrah then and hurrah today too. Now the Secretary of State has wisely put front of house the need for work space in a location that employers will choose, knowing the housing demand does not lead strategic planning,, it follows. The same incidentally applies to other high growth locations too. Give employers the work space they want in the locations they want, and the rest will follow. If in the meantime the regions and its councils have devised their own market based travel to work spatial plan doing so ensures nasty spatial mistakes, which guarantee dislike of change,, will not happen.,
Back to the Case. How will the Cambridge Development Group win local support to build an additional 5000+ new homes ever year somewhere around Cambridge? Have you ever lived on, or a close to a house building site? I have. There are conflicts, as you will guess. Can they be overcome? Yes, with control of the building land through land ownership, not though development control.
Next, can you control the spatial dream and the delivery programme? Yes, but only through land ownership. Can you capture all the land value created by the community as consent is granted? Yes, if you plan ten to twenty years ahead of putting bricks in the ground., linked to a land ownership plan.
But above all, as I say here regularly how do you win local support for change? Residents must see what is in for them, for their futures and their families. There is along way to go! This journey had not started. On these vital issues the Guidance is silent. Are masterplanners appointed? Who will set the agenda of the new development corporation? To whom will it’s members be answerable? These are all important but highly contentious issues. They will need skilled leadership from shrewd realists who are looking at least two generations ahead. The entry threshold is cross party support at two levels, locally and in Westminster. Without these foundations this vision will remain a dream.
Ian Campbell
19 March 2024
