The roundtable’s discussion emphasised the holistic nature of the changes that the Cambridge economy needs to overcome in order to optimise the development of its people, skills-base, infrastructure, education and buildings.
The New Era for the Cambridge Economy (NECE) plan developed by Cambridge Ahead specifically looks at how to take a multi-dimensional view of the issues in order to improve the city’s overall quality of life
One of the issues NECE is focusing on, and which was discussed in depth at the roundtable, is transport.
As previously stated, a lack of easy movement has been hampering people’s ability to form networks as well as to commute and reach places of employment.
Pre-COVID, the burden on Cambridge’s road and rail systems was already threatening to overload them and post-COVID it’s unlikely that many people would want to face a stressful daily commute again.
Many of the participants agreed though that conventional working environments are still going to be in demand, as while people are likely to work more from home, being together in person and having “water cooler moments” is still highly valuable, especially in the science and technology sectors.
Creating more facilities outside of the immediate Cambridge cluster was suggested as one way to both spread the highly skilled innovation ecosystem while reducing congestion on Cambridge’s transport networks.
A science park in Peterborough or Huntingdon for example could improve people’s quality of life.
This would give them an option which wouldn’t involve such a long commute or high cost of living.
With so many changes to how, when and where people are working, many at the roundtable considered the impact that this will have on traffic and transport and advocated that now is a prime time to rethink our transport needs.
Jane Paterson-Todd and David Cleevley demonstrated how practical steps could improve local logistics.
As an example, they discussed how they’d been working with engineers and local authorities to redesign key aspects of the proposed Cambridge metro system.
Thanks to this work, they realised that a lack of local knowledge meant that the original routes didn’t line up with where the actual demand was and that the approved model had a 50% error margin in how many passengers arrive into Cambridge station.
Moving forward, Jane advocated supporting the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s four corridors project due to its futureproof nature as well as maintaining constant pressure on local and central authorities to ensure that much needed progress wasn’t stalled by new administrations or a lack of political will.
From this roundtable, it’s apparent that the city’s stakeholders recognise Cambridge has a lot of unique advantages but that if it is to fulfil its potential and double its GVA by 2040 then it needs to think creatively about how it develops and grows.
Failing to address the challenges it faces could quickly lead to a number of serious issues, such as a sluggish pace of change, high living costs and an inappropriate transport network not only shutting people out of the city but potentially forcing many skilled members of the workforce out of the area.
In addition, there is a lot of opportunity to grow the Cambridge cluster into Peterborough and the fens to spread wealth, knowledge and skills while connecting academics and businesses that might otherwise miss out on opportunities.
The natural landscape of the area should also be harnessed to ensure that a green economy can thrive and ideally become a leading hub for environmentally-focused research and solutions.
Identifying and overcoming the hurdles that threaten to slow down progress or derail necessary changes requires a close attention to the issues at hand as well as a willingness to embrace new ideas and ways of working.
