Alison Taylor, Chair, Cambridge 2030 and CEO, Conscious Comms:

From the very start of UKREiiF 2025 – the UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum – it was clear that Team Cambridgeshire and Peterborough was OPEN for business, but (music to my ears) NOT JUST ANY business.  

This seemed a significant shift from last year and I noted that every presentation and workshop I attended – which were back to back (and sometimes overlapping) over the three days – referenced the importance of delivering social value. 

The now well shared narrative about Cambridge being the most unequal city in the UK is still very real and, since the COVID-19 pandemic, more pronounced and crippling than ever for many people in the city.  As far as I’m aware, the 12-year life expectancy gap between the richest and poorest in our community, has not shifted in a decade despite all efforts from councils, charities, community groups and purpose-driven companies.

The words of Michelle Sacks, CEO of Huntingtonshire District Council, at UKREiiF reminded me of what we said when we founded Cambridge 2030 five years ago to help address these inequalities: “we’re working together to get stuff done; people spend too long talking and not doing.” 

Beth Dugdale, Director of Cambridge Growth Company, said: “we must think about inequality when planning growth, we have an opportunity to address the challenges and ensure that growth benefits existing residents.”

She continued that our region is “one of the most collaborative regions she has ever worked in” – which is heartening, but isn’t something we can rely solely on to make real change. We have to build on it with purpose. 

Rebecca Briton, Regional Director of Communities, Communications and Partnerships at Urban and Civic, which works with the Quality of Life Foundation, Abbey People, Constructed Pathways, New Meaning Foundation, and others, is championing growth in a “careful and considered way” and spoke at UKREiiF about needing to be part of the ecosystem for sustainability if growth is to benefit the community.

There are, of course, many challenges to overcome as our regional economy grows, including skills shortages, energy and water shortages, logistics, connectivity, and navigating the planning system.  

The golden thread of skills development, linked to the Invest 2035 industrial strategy, was encouraging. Arc Universities Group, headed by Alistair Lomax, is working on plans to reskill and upskill across the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor, to fill the predicted 403,000 new jobs that will be created. 

Lomax stressed that “growth means building” and requires a shift away from traditional bricks and mortar towards modular, sustainable construction techniques, which will mean new and different skills are necessary.

Peter Freeman, Chair of Cambridge Growth Company, in turn stressed that the need to design more sustainable, mixed use new towns is more apparent than ever.  He believes the “private sector will deliver most of the finance and skills, while the public sector will be responsible for land assembly and bringing together collaborations”.  He suggested that maybe one per cent of revenues generated by developers should be “given to the public in perpetuity”, citing Trumpington Meadows as an example of how this thinking can work.

But, it’s not all about “hard hats”, there will be roles in human resources, communications and engagement, finance and accounting, technology and more. And, of course, the arrival of Universal Studios to the region will bring a whole new level of opportunity for employment.

I think it was Michelle Burton of West Yorkshire Combined Authority who said: “There is an opportunity for growth to be transformative for communities, not just symbolic, and it needs to be measured in terms of outcomes through a clear and consistent framework – leaving a lasting legacy should be the goal.”

Again, I noted a shift from thinking about measurement of social value away from monetary terms to something that evaluates the real and lasting impact of growth on social mobility, life chances, health and happiness in a singular place. 

With a focus on these ambitions and with the collaborative efforts of public, private, charity and community organisations, I believe that deep and meaningful change to improve life chances and drive social mobility is entirely within our grasp.