We firmly support the Greater Cambridge Shared Partnership in ensuring that Greater Cambridge’s
valuable open spaces are protected but recognise that the fulfillment of this promise is threatened by the planned development in the north part of the city. At the moment it is apparent that all the citizens of Cambridge do not benefit from the development of new homes and jobs given that Cambridge is becoming widely recognised as the most unequal city in the UK. Only this week a
Guardian journalist published a scathing article following his visit to Cambridge where he discovered “desperate inequality” [1], particularly when encountering our fellow citizens using the food banks in the ward of Abbey. According to the thinktank, Centre for Cities, Cambridge is the most unequal city in the UK [2].
We are concerned that the Local Plan’s slogan of ‘good growth’ will not only worsen environmental damage, but will fail to serve our Cambridge citizens who are greatly disadvantaged. Instead, the planned growth will only serve our significantly privileged citizens - widening the socio-economic gap even further. To illustrate, it was noted in a Cambridge Commons report [3] that while the top 6% of earners in Cambridge earn 19% of the total income generated in the city, the bottom 20% of earners received only 2% of the total income. In addition, it is well known that contemporary Cambridge has experienced one of the fastest growths in housing supply but the average house price exceeded half a million pounds in September this year [4] meaning that you need to earn over £49,338.00 in order to afford to buy a home in this city [5]. These ‘home-truths’ make Cambridge amongst the most unaffordable cities in the UK despite the amount of wealth that is generated here. A good standard of living, where one can afford to get onto the property ladder, is simply not accessible to many local residents who grow up here. Also the high cost of living in Cambridge is likely to deter those living in other parts of the country and the world from coming to live here.
[1] Aditya Chakrabortty, ‘The truth is now plain: in Johnson’s Britain, some lives are more equal than
others,’ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/09/johnson-britain-equal-cambridgerich-
poor
[2] https://www.centreforcities.org/blog/value-challenges-taking-wider-view-city-economies/
[3] https://www.thecambridgecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Cambridge-Commons-SIPFinal-
Report-1.pdf
[4] https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ukhpi/browse?from=2021-01-
01&location=http%3A%2F%2Flandregistry.data.gov.uk%2Fid%2Fregion%2Fcambridge&to=2021-
12-01&lang=en