You’ll be delighted to know that theres ***another consultation*** – this one on strategic planning that was scrapped by Eric Pickles’ pen back in 2010, a few months after the East of England spent the best part of a decade putting the old East of England Regional Plan together.
Such is the life of civil servants.
I wrote how not everything needs to be in Cambridge back in May 2023 here, referencing the old regional plan. I asked when the last time was that politicians from across East Anglia had a conversation about the location of ‘strategic cultural facilities’.
Above – from p57 East of England RSS March 2010
Hence going on in that blogpost to make points about significant regional connections that could do wonders for places far away from Cambridge – such as the historic seaside resorts of Great Yarmouth (one of the most economically-deprived towns in the country) and Hunstanton.
Above – from the Hunstanton Rail Campaign. 90minutes there, 90 minutes back. No driving needed. (I’ve done the car and minibus-on-school/college trips in the 1990s. Not as much fun as going by train!)
On the regions of England
The Royal Commission on Local Government in England 1966-69 (AKA Redcliffe Maud) proposed new regional provinces.
Above –
During my civil service days the Michael-Heseltine-created regions looked like as below. The map below is taken from a select committee report from 2007 in which the Government’s case for having such regions is quoted just above the map in this section here.
What the Minister for Housing and Planning is proposing is as below
Above – you can see the more detailed version from the consultation here
Basically the green areas already have combined authorities established. Everywhere else ministers are trying to fill in the gaps left by the Tories’ botched attempts at trying to deal with regional problems on the back of envelopes. Hence the poorly-defined Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority that has had huge problems ever since it was created 8 years ago.
The proposals in this consultation *will not work* for Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, or Peterborough*
“Why not?”
The consultation text states:
“SDSs [spatial development strategies] will ensure that sub-regional areas can effectively plan to:
- to meet their housing needs
- co-ordinate the provision of strategic infrastructure
- grow their economies
- improve the environment and climate resilience
If ministers are talking about sub-regional areas, they need to get the boundaries right.
Let’s look at Redcliffe-Maud again.
Above – from Redcliffe Maud’s maps – the proposed but abandoned Cambridge unitary council. Note how the unitary centred around Peterborough would have incorporated nearby settlements in both Northamptonshire and southern Lincolnshire.
Note how the boundaries broadly match the ‘travel to work area’ by bus for Cambridge below. For Peterborough, the very poor transport links (road, rail, the lot) means that King’s Lynn over the county border plays a big part in the local economy of northern Cambridgeshire.
Above – Cambridge & Peterborough’s bus travel to work area commuting patterns 2011 –from the ONS here
If we are talking sub-regional, then Peterborough’s going to have issues with the lack of proposals for Northamptonshire
There are a swathe of counties south of Birmingham and north of the M4 that don’t have arrangements for strategic planning – they are the ones in grey
Above – detail from the Spatial Strategies Map in the consultation at Annex A
This also risks Northamptonshire missing out on the benefits of East-West-Rail. Hence when Jeremy Hunt – Chancellor under Rishi Sunak’s floundering administration announced a life sciences strategy, I picked up on the need for an integrated regional electrified rail network to serve it. Hence looking at a possible Cambridge-Bedford-Northampton link.
Above – Cambridge-Northampton on G-Maps in CTO 28 May 2023
It’s only 20 miles from Bedford railway station to Northampton railway station. That plus much of the old track bed linking the two county towns is still undeveloped.
Above – from the New Adlestrop Rail Atlas of lost railway lines – the old Northampton – Bedford link. (Join Rail Future if you want to campaign for better rail links and upgraded lines!)
Anyway, all of the above is meaningless so long as HM Treasury keep a tight guard on the purse strings and the tax-raising powers
So long as the combined authorities and local councils remain little more than local and sub-regional delivery agents for ministers, the success or otherwise of such long term strategies remains vulnerable to changes of ministers. And given the experience of HS2, it’s not the way to be doing infrastructure projects.
One of the big missing pieces therefore is a new White Paper on Local Government Finance – overhauling the system of how councils and also these new strategic authorities are funded, and what independent revenue-raising powers they have. But given the current party political crisis in Downing Street (the Cabinet Secretary having been forced out), we are a long way away from such a policy overhaul in that field that no Prime Minister since John Major has dared touch.
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