Today, I set out a further step in this Government’s commitment to realise the full potential of Cambridge.
“The Case for Cambridge”, which we published at spring Budget 2024, explains why Cambridge’s success can neither be taken for granted nor easily replicated elsewhere. The city is one of the UK’s most prized assets. There is now an opportunity to grow the city and protect its position as a leading centre of science and innovation.
The Cambridge delivery group, chaired by Peter Freeman, was established as a Government team to advise on and drive forward the Government’s vision for Cambridge. On 26 March 2024, I confirmed that we are establishing a dedicated growth company as the next step towards a development corporation. Part of the Cambridge delivery group’s strategy is to focus on enabling and accelerating key developments that align with the overall strategy for growing the urban area of Cambridge, while ensuring that we protect overall green space and that the wider region benefits from improved transport, better access to services and enhanced amenities and employment prospects.
The Cambridge biomedical campus is one such strategic site, as Europe’s leading centre for medical research and health science. At spring Budget, we announced a £7.2 million investment for locally led transport schemes to provide the Cambridge biomedical campus with connectivity and £3 million to support Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to develop longer-term capacity and delivery plans for the site.
In addition, the Government are satisfied that the national importance of the greater Cambridge life sciences sector is sufficient to prompt, in principle, the early expansion and coherent delivery of this foremost UK life sciences cluster. In particular, the Government are satisfied that the imperative to support this key sector provides sufficient justification for immediate collaboration between key stakeholders on development proposals coming forward ahead of the emerging local plan, to address the coherent enhancement, intensification and expansion of the Cambridge biomedical campus adjacent to Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
One of the first priorities of the new growth company will be to support immediate collaboration between key stakeholders at the Cambridge biomedical campus. The growth company will also help to address any barriers to the early expansion and coherent enhancement of the campus, including through the accelerated delivery of any associated housing development and the provision of appropriate levels of affordable housing to meet the housing needs of those working at the campus.
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