Greater Cambridge Local Plan Issues & Options 2020

Very important

Greater Cambridge plays a pivotal role in the sub regional and wider economies by virtue of its positioning in the Oxford-Cambridge and London-Cambridge corridors. The College considers economic growth is an extremely important “big theme” for the new Local Plan. Cambridge’s reputation for innovation and technological hubs (much of it based on Cambridge University’s research and “spin-outs”) means there is continuing and in the College’s opinion, an accelerating need for the Local Plan to help facilitate new technological and economic clusters to drive growth and productivity and address growing challenges such as climate change. In this regard Cambridge University’s research and development capabilities should be an important consideration in delivering sustainable economic growth. The College’s “Call for Sites” proposals at Duxford are for a major mixed-use development which would deliver a new high-tech engineering-based hub focused on the rapidly expanding General Aviation and Aerospace sectors, which is supported by the University Engineering department – the largest department in the University. The Local Plan should therefore take the opportunity to support new technology clusters, especially those which will help achieve other major objectives such as dealing with the challenges of climate change and moving to lower carbon solutions. However, whilst the College considers the new Local Plan should facilitate new employment opportunities, it considers it equally important to ensure the benefits of growth are felt throughout the community.

The College considers there is a need for a range of jobs and employment space. Given Cambridge’s international reputation and skills base, this will mean attracting high tech opportunities requiring laboratory, specialist manufacturing and office space for start-ups, incubator and shift-on spaces. The success of existing business clusters shows that to accommodate the long-term growth potential of new sectors, the new Local Plan will need to allocate sustainable new sites for new technology business clusters. In turn we consider such opportunities will give rise to wide range of job types for different skills levels.

The College recognises there is a need for a wide range of job opportunities. However, given the dynamism of modern economies and sectoral growth, it considers a flexible policy is needed in terms of protecting existing business and industrial space, as there is often need for redevelopment and refurbishment of outdated accommodation.

As set out in the response to Q25, the College recognises the benefits of knowledge intensive industries must be felt throughout the community, via provision of associated jobs for all skill levels. As such, the College supports a balancing of a range of job opportunities.

Major new employment space should be located where there is already a sectoral concentration of businesses/skills/attractions and synergy to build on and attract new like-minded occupiers. These should be in accessible locations and in particular where there are existing or forthcoming public transport connections or forthcoming ones such as South Cambridge with the newly announced preferred route for east-west rail. Additionally, focus should be on where there is an existing residential community and service provision with the potential to expand settlements so that the degree of self-containment between work, home and services can be optimised and service provision enhanced. In turn, development and infrastructure is not therefore having to start “from scratch”. The College’s “Call for Sites” proposals are firmly based on these principles, promoting a major new General Aviation and aerospace cluster (“AvTech”) at Duxford which already has an established village, existing infrastructure provision and a number of related business, including of course, the international IWM Duxford “brand”.

Somewhat flexible

The College considers the key issue is to ensure the settlement hierarchy is as sustainable as possible. This means centres being able to respond quickly to changing requirements and consumer/market trends rather than seeking to protect a particular land use or traditional vision of a “centre”. This is most clearly demonstrated in the declining role of “traditional” retail uses and the changing role of town centres which need to embrace a much wider range of uses – leisure, health, education, community, hospitality, residential etc – as well as retail. Clearly not all centres in the hierarchy can attract or support all uses – they need to be able to define their own identities. In particular, some of Cambridgeshire’s smaller villages need to attract new residential and economic bases to support essential services if they are to survive and prosper. The Councils should take a pro-active approach in creating strategies to future proof the area’s city, town, district, local and village centres, identifying the opportunities for creating vibrant and viable centres for the benefit of existing and future resident, student and employee communities.

The College, given its location, is aware of both the benefits and challenges of high levels of visitation in the city centre and its impact on its fabric and infrastructure. As such, the College would support building on existing visitor attractions outside the city centre in well located rural places, with good access including public transport. This will assist in maintaining the visitor economy but would also spread the benefits more widely across the area providing additional local jobs, contributing to local services and facilitating the sustainability of smaller settlements, including some villages which are losing population and service provision. In this regard, the College’s Duxford “Call for Sites” proposals would directly support the plans of IWM Duxford to increase visitation, by protecting the flight paths over its land and by creating a “green link” through the Call for Sites proposal site and onto Whittlesford Parkway to provide more direct public transport access to IWM.

The College is aware of the affordability issue within Cambridge city and the sub region, given not only its student population, but also its teaching, research and support staff that face this issue on a daily basis. The College is also aware of the continued growth in the Greater Cambridge economy as well as the goal of doubling total economic input in the combined Cambridge and Peterborough devolution deal. As such, the College supports the development of new housing over and above existing adopted local plan targets, including affordable housing for a range of tenures and price points. Given the Government’s emphasis on the delivery of new homes through the Housing Delivery Test, the College also considers the Local Plan needs to carefully assess the deliverability of new housing proposals to meet adopted targets. In this regard, the College’s Duxford “Call for Sites” submission includes proposals for significant new housing (circa 800 new homes) as part of a truly mixed-use development on its own land. In this context, the College represents a single landowner which has ultimate control over the speed and quality of delivery of new housing, other development and infrastructure.

Yes, strongly agree

The College considers Greater Cambridge occupies a special position in the UK for economic growth potential. At the same time, Cambridge currently has an “affordability” challenge for living in/around the city. The College would, therefore, support a higher level of potential housing growth to provide the flexibility required to support a growing economy and greater affordability by virtue of increasing supply and choice.

The College supports the delivery of a wide range of housing types, tenures and mixes recognising the diversity of the resident, business and student community. As part of its Duxford “Call for Sites” proposals, the College has the objective of meeting targeted affordable housing needs (subject to viability), the inclusion of a range of other tenure types and the potential for assisting a local Community Land Trust (for meeting parish affordable needs).