…nor is it ‘the greatest small city in the world’ – because great cities large and small would not have such defunct governance systems, nor would they have such huge levels of inequality
Image – from Prof Josh Ryan-Collins’s report on demand for housing as an investment
Former Queen Edith’s councillor Sam Davies spotted this piece of churnalism
…which looked suspiciously like an article published just over a year ago, quoting the same newspaper from a different stable. Just because the list has been updated doesn’t mean they have to re-use the same quotations. The only change seemed to be the average house price quoted – from £475,000 in 2023 to £588,000 in 2024. At the same time, the publication’s sister national titles in the ReachPLC stable carried a short piece on Cambridge being overrun by tourists – in both the Express and Star. Given the new edict from the national media group’s bosses, there’s only so much seriousness one can take such pieces. I don’t blame the reporters. With the best will in the world I couldn’t come up with that many articles a day.
I could do a hatchet job on the estate agency mentioned but what’s the point? It’s their job to promote the city and the homes for sale in it. And it’s the government’s job to ensure that the market is properly regulated while at the same time not contributing towards the housing crisis that we see.
The demand for housing as an investment – Prof Josh Ryan Collins of University College London
Above – from Centre for Cities.
“It comes as no surprise to see how housebuilding locally has been way ahead of the national rate, nor that population growth has continued to outstrip even that accelerated rate.”
This quotation below resonated strongly at the Cambridge 2030 event at ARM that I went to earlier this evening.
“Not a single reference was made to ‘the other Cambridges’: the independent local businesses priced out or told to move on; the school pupils who aren’t set for STEM careers; the residents who aren’t part of the self-described ‘village’ of the select few. It was clear that those hoping to be the single powerful voice representing our city to decision makers and investors don’t see it as their responsibility to include the rich plurality of Cambridge which so many of us value.”
Cambridge 2030 at ARM on Fulbourn Road – 14 Oct 2024
The speakers from groups included:
- The Cambridge United Foundation – do read their Strategy 2024-27 here
- Cambridge Community Arts
- Edge Cafe Mill Road – Cambridge, & Fulbourn
…and they all made powerful cases for investing in arts, leisure, music, and sport – in particular the positive impact on mental health and community cohesion. Which is why I am very concerned that the Combined Authority’s focus is far too narrow, and risks undermining essential work being done to combat things like loneliness. It was also why in my Q to the new director of skills at the Combined Authority, Andrea Wood MBE, I asked about the lack of a lifelong learning centre and what freedoms, powers, and funding might be forthcoming from central government.
Cambridge 2030
The event was hosted by our county’s Lord Lieutenant Julie Spence (previously our chief constable) and also had in attendance Cllr Mike Davey, the Leader of Cambridge City Council. I posted some photos, screengrabs, and quotations on #Cambridge2030.
My two main takeaways from the evening were:
- The message that charitable projects, more partnership working, and trying to carry on as before were no longer sustainable – and were not going to have the sort of impact needed to resolve Cambridge’s huge inequalities and other chronic social issues
- The grudging acceptance that getting involved in ‘capital-P Politics’ was inevitable if Cambridge was to have a chance at solving the issues above
Furthermore, there is a very specific point in the policy-making process that Cambridge 2030 participants can lobby ministers around regarding an emerging call for more to be done by the private sector – especially developers and their financiers, on social infrastructure.
“Our planning and infrastructure Bill will provide the extra homes we need, unblock stalled development sites and unveil the next generation of new towns.”
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, 19 July 2024 – House of Commons Hansard at end of Column 314
That Bill has not been published yet (but when it is, it will be listed here). The item to ask ministers for are clauses that will empower local councils/planning authorities to compel developers to make sufficient provision for social infrastructure – which Owen Garling of the Bennett Institute at Cambridge University gave everyone a crash course on.
“Social Infrastructure – we’ve discussed this before.”
“When Professor Anand Menon, of UK in a Changing Europe, asked an audience in Newcastle to imagine the economic toll Brexit would have on the country’s GDP, he was heckled: “that’s your bloody GDP, not ours”. That moment neatly encapsulated the anger of what London School of Economics Professor Andrés Rodríguez-Pose calls the “places that don’t matter”.”
Above – Shaw (2021) Bennett Institute, Cambridge
Hence back in July 2021 I asked in this blogpost: “Can the promoters of economic growth in the Greater Cambridge area also make the case for providing social and cultural infrastructure – and greening our city too?”
“If it’s happening, I’m not seeing nearly enough of it.”
The Chair of the Federation of Cambridge Residents’ Associations, Wendy Blythe also raised the impact of repeated rejections by decision-makers on attempts by community groups to save community buildings for local use. The latest one is the former Mill Road Library – noting that the preferred bidder has not done any community outreach prior to submitting their bid, interesting as that bid sounds. Furthermore, there’s the depressing sight and site of the old Romsey Labour Club, and the continued disgrace that is the treatment of the old Hobson Street Cinema and the dreadful proposals by Donald Insall Associates who, despite doing a decent job restoring the Mill Road Library, have come up with a comprehensive redevelopment plan that in my view is ‘worse than communism’ when compared with a propaganda poster from East Germany in the 1980s.
Above-left: Capitalist propaganda – boring, dull, beige and grey. Above-right: Communist propaganda – look at all of those lovely colours replacing that destroyed city!
In a nutshell, we’re losing far too much of what the research seems to be telling us is a good thing. So something has gone badly wrong with the structures and systems by which our city is governed. That needs investigating and needs dealing with.
This is also why Cambridge University researcher and Ph.D candidate Cleo Valentine’s research on neurological responses to architecture and the built environment is ever so important. You can listen to her here.
“I wanted to know if there was a connection between certain design choices, people’s perceptions of beauty, and human health. This eventually evolved into a fascination with how architecture might affect our brain through our immune system.”
“We now know architecture can cause stress” – Cleo Valentine – Sept 2023
Ministers already know that Cambridge City Council cannot function under the existing spending plans set out by the previous government.
This comes back to the marketing quotation of Cambridge being ‘the perfect small city’. It ain’t. Not by a long way. It might look like the ‘confectionary box cover’ perfect city, but that’s if you ignore the vegetation growing along the gutters of main roads, the roads in a poor state of repair, and the persistent presence of homeless people whose collective needs have not been met because of the decisions by successive Chancellors of the Exchequer to underfund the services that might otherwise support them – or better still, prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.
Finally, great and/or perfect cities don’t have essential decisions taken by institutions based far away from them at sites that are very difficult to get to on public transport.
“That so many key decisions from transport to public health are taken in places like Huntingdon and Alconbury make statements about Cambridge being ‘The World’s Greatest Small City’ sound embarrassing.“
Which brings us back to governance structures
The root of so many of Cambridge’s problems are in the structures and systems of governance – one that is effectively controlled by ministers via Parliament. Parliament legislated for the creation of what is now Cambridge City Council. (The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 being the foundation point – and enabled us to build a police station). Therefore it can zap us at will! (i.e. there is no constitutional protection as in other countries).
Therefore, while the city has the eye of ministers on it, now is exactly the time to be making the case for better structures, systems, and processes. Even better if it can come from a collective of organisations from across the piece – public, private, not-for-profit, voluntary. Cambridge 2030 is one alliance capable of doing this – not least because of their very visible objective to end poverty in our unequal city. Ministers cannot make the case for growth if it’s only going to make those inequalities worse, and further damage our environment and ecology.
Food for thought?
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Below – talking of community action, Let’s Go Fly The Kite with Together Culture
The Cambridge Town Owl 