The Chair of the New Towns Task Force said some things on the radio which worried a few of us given the intro into the news item!
It wasn’t a formal statement of government policy, rather a short soundbite that actually didn’t add anything new. But things like this can set the political cat amongst the pigeons.
The clipped quotation from the news this morning from Sir Michael Lyons, Chair of the New Towns Task Force, was as follows:
“My sense is that that will happen whatever, exactly on what scale and how fast ought to be determined. I don’t see that depending on the work of the task force, but we can certainly learn from the progress that has already been made to date, and perhaps encourage it to move a little faster”
BBC Cambridgeshire News 10am Sat 21 Sept 2024
I’m trying to see if there is a more extended clip of Sir Michael’s comments, but in the grand scheme of things he’s several steps removed from what’s proposed for Cambridge [however defined geographically] as his remit covers the new generation of New Towns across England.
“The [New Towns] Taskforce met for the first time today in Milton Keynes, a successful post-war town, confirming the responsibilities for each member, laying the groundwork to identify appropriate locations and learning the lessons from previous efforts to build new towns.”
Press Release, Gov UK 17 Sept 2024
“What’s the difference between the New Towns Task Force (NTTF) and the Cambridge Delivery Group?”
And you thought our local government structures for city and county were messy!
The NTTF is only due to exist for around 12 months, and has a very specific end point: The delivery of a report with recommendations to ministers. The group is tasked with:
- Identifying and reviewing high potential locations for new towns.
- Agreeing principles and standards that must be met to provide good quality places.
- Exploring new ways to attract future funding and investment.
- Finding practical solutions to remove barriers that will unlock the delivery of new towns.
Above – Press Release, Gov UK 17 Sept 2024
The Cambridge Delivery Group will last for much longer
The Minister for Housing stated that he’d keep on the Cambridge Delivery Group established by the previous government.
“The CDG was established as a government team to advise on and drive forward the government’s vision for Cambridge. The team is made up of policy professionals, surveyors, town planners, economists and development specialists, drawing on the expertise of Homes England and the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). The Group’s work to-date has involved working with local partners to inform and support the delivery of the government’s vision for Cambridge as set out at Spring Budget.”
Above – Press Release Gov UK, 26 March 2024
Phil Rodgers threw an FoI Request at the department asking for names of members – you can read the response here. In the grand scheme of things, it sounds like an in-house project board that is standard for a policy like this. i.e. you bring together civil servants from across the civil service in a range of departments and government agencies (of which Homes England is one) which is to put in place whatever is needed to build whatever it is that the Government wants Cambridge to become. The main difference between the previous and the current government is that the current Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook appears much more willing to work with local councillors and local politicians than his predecessor who didn’t even give them any warning about the announcement.
Above by Combined Authority Mayor Dr Nik Johnson – the visit from the Minister for Housing & Planning Matthew Pennycook MP – final photo meeting with Daniel Zeichner MP (Labour – Cambridge, also Minister for Agriculture), the CPCA Mayor, and the leaders of Cambridge City Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council, and Cambridgeshire County Council (Cllrs Mike Davey, Bridget Smith, and Lucy Nethsingha).
“Who are the groups, firms, and lobbyists that the Cambridge Delivery Group are meeting with?”
If anyone would like to throw a Freedom of Information Request to the Government on who the CDG has held meetings with (groups, institutions, forums, partnerships, federations rather than individual names), feel free to send one in. Essentially:
- “Do any records exist of which groups/institutions/forums/partnerships/federations/organisations/firms that the CDG has met representatives of, or invited representatives to make submissions to it regarding the future of Cambridge?
- If so, please could the Department publish that information. Please restrict the scope of this request from 05 July 2024 to the receipt of this request.“
One of the things that you want in meetings like this is a range of opinions being expressed – and even disagreement between the participants. For example between developers and environmental groups. Policy teams in central government have been hollowed out – as revealed in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. Therefore having additional capacity to scrutinise what is being submitted to civil servants and thus to ministers – and having the latter hearing the exchanges between the disagreeing sides, is a good thing. It’s in the public interest.
Theresa May’s former top adviser asks ministers about Rail Haverhill
Now the MP for West Suffolk having succeeded Matt Hancock, Nick Timothy MP tabled the following question to the Leader of the House, Lucy Powell MP on 05 Sept 2024
“In his recent letter to local councils, the Minister for Housing and Planning, the hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Matthew Pennycook) appeared to kill off the previous Government’s plan for Cambridge. Will the Minister come to the House and make a statement on the urgent need for improved infrastructure linking Cambridge to various communities, including Haverhill in my constituency, which desperately needs a rail link to Cambridge?“
Above – Hansard Column 447 on 05 Sept 2024
The response was understandably non-committal because there’s no way the Leader of the House would have known nearly enough about the policy area to know whether a minister is able to make an oral statement to the House of Commons. But it shows that Mr Timothy has laid down a marker in the sand on Rail Haverhill.
Which reminds me – the Greater Cambridge Partnership is still blundering on with their busway proposals that no longer extend to Haverhill
I moaned about it here, trying to put in place both a timeline of who made what decisions, and links to the various papers and questions involved that have left the GCP without having put a spade in the ground of either of their high profile schemes after a decade following their formation.
There’s still a very long way to go.
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The Cambridge Town Owl 