A written statement to Parliament on the final day before the Easter Recess 2024 as the PM passes the deadline for a 02 May General Election.
There wasn’t that much in his statement of 26 March 2024 that was new.
“As set out in the Terms of Reference, published today, the Growth Company will focus on establishing a strong Cambridge presence and brand, developing the evidence base and case for investment to support our long-term strategy, and enabling and accelerating existing developments in and around the city.”
Michael Gove to Parliament 26 March 2024
“Riiiiiiiiiiiiight! Cambridge doesn’t have a strong enough brand so Michael Gove and chums are going to rock up and come up with a better one?”
Shades of 2012 by Stephen Collins in The Guardian?
Gove still has not designated the geographical area he proposes for his Development Corporation
Which is kind of a big omission.
“Yet highlighting the challenges of the scheme behind Gove’s desk is a map of the city showing the existing city, the green belt around it and blue and purple blocks marking where the new houses might go.”
Andrew Lainton 19 Dec 2023
I saw the above-quotation posted around with some wondering what this map is. I think it’s this one – the map of submissions from developers and landowners of sites for consideration for the 2031-40 emerging local plan.
Above – via my blogpost on Gove’s supersquad of planners
This shows the fields north of Cambourne that someone snapped the rights up for ages ago, along with longstanding speculative land grabs at Six Mile Bottom and also on the Cambs/Herts border. The more detailed one for Cambridge residents is below:
Above – again you can see the speculative land grabs on the southern edge of Cambridge
The serious question for any incoming government is how they intend to ensure the land value is captured by the state to pay for the much-needed infrastructure – transport, community, social, sports, arts, leisure, and environmental, rather than being siphoned off and channelled out of the city as is currently the case.
“A range of local partners, including local authority leaders and representatives of the academic, innovation and infrastructure sectors, will be invited to an Advisory Council to support the Growth Company.”
Michael Gove to Parliament 26 March 2024
This assumes that local authority leaders and the local councils they lead support the proposals coming from the growth company.
That is the ultimate tension between central and local government. But as those of you who have been to my past workshops will know, Parliament is Sovereign and previous Parliaments have legislated to grant the Secretary of State responsible for local government and town planning the powers to establish development corporations to deliver central government policies – even though *local government* with its own electorate may have very different views.
One of the longer term decisions national politicians have got to decide is whether they see local government as the legitimate voice of the people of villages, towns, and cities – ones with their own competencies to run their own local affairs and provide public services as they see fit (subject to minimum national floors to deal with poverty & multiple deprivation), or whether they see councils as the administrative arm of central government, there to do the bidding of ministers. There is no right/wrong answer for this. Different countries have different balances between local, regional, and federal/national government.
“What are the terms of reference of the delivery group?”
Again, published on ‘take out the trash day’
Above – from GovUK, 26 March 2024
“Under the sponsorship of DLUHC and Homes England, the Growth Company will have the following remit:
- Development acceleration: enabling and accelerating developments which align with the overall strategy for growing Cambridge and unlocking held-up development on sites allocated in the current local plan.
- Establishing a Cambridge presence and brand: through communications including a website and direct engagement with Cambridge residents as well as local leaders and other stakeholders.
- Developing the evidence base and case for investment to underpin and support development of its long-term growth strategy: working with experts to assess areas of potential growth and investment.
- Leading development: through large scale land assembly, major infrastructure projects, and ensuring maximum recovery including through planning contributions.
- Cross-government engagement: identifying solutions to complex constraints and supporting cross-government engagement to unblock existing development and provide the right incentives for successful development in the long-term.”
…which looks like fun.
“I hope we don’t get a bland corporate brand dreamt up by some London-based consultant who might have been an undergraduate here once”
Cambridge ‘town’ already has its own brand in the form of the Coat of Arms – we’ve had a pair of Neptune’s horses guarding over us since…1575.
That said, I have personal reasons for not liking the red/blue design of the version you see on the Guildhall.
Eitherway, my preference is to let the children, teenagers, and art students of our city come up with ideas – having given them a host of visual and historical prompts beforehand. Because it’s their future. It shouldn’t be for older people like me to come up with an entry for volume II of Hideous Cambridge.
“Have ministers said *anything* on local government restructuring?”
Nope.
This is despite the creation of the Cambs Unitaries Campaign (which will be having its launch next month – watch that space!) as well as the city council approving a motion instructing the Chief Executive to open discussions about the future governance arrangements for the city and county.
The problem remains that ministers remain light on the details.
“Cllrs Mike Davey and Bridget Smith have called on Government for far more detail around what housing growth is being proposed, and where – and to ensure both councils and their communities are closely involved and can have their say.
“…They say many important questions remain unanswered – and add that the Government has not yet made the case for the use of a Development Corporation, or evidenced their aspirations for the scale of homebuilding necessary, to progress their 2050 vision for Cambridge.”
Cambridge City Council / South Cambridgeshire District Council Joint Press Release 06 March 2024
“So…a bit like the commercial eggs on sale now, it’s all foil and sparkle on the outside but with little to show for it in the middle?”
You could say that. More importantly though, the Labour Party nationally will have to come up with a comprehensive alternative – even if it’s sticking with the original existing process of creating the next local development plan 2031-40
Food for thought?
If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to:
- Follow me on Twitter
- Like my Facebook page
- Consider a small donation to help fund my continued research and reporting on local democracy in and around Cambridge.
If you want some ideas on how to go about this, pop into Together Culture on Fitzroy Street down the road from The Grafton Centre.
The Cambridge Town Owl 