Booming tech and life science clusters, access to the talent pool of a world-class university, and a collaborative atmosphere have all been drivers for success in Cambridge.
And recent property transactions including the Amazon letting at Brookgate’s CB1 and Aviva’s £87m deal to forward fund 50 & 60 Station Road – a 163,000 sq ft office at the scheme – plus a commitment to support a further 192,000 sq ft, are a vote of confidence from occupiers and investors demanding a foothold in this unique market.
But its continuing success relies heavily on harnessing the best minds to work in the city, helped by the freedom of movement of people the UK has at present. The prospect that Brexit would hamper such freedom was cause for concern for the panel at EG’s Cambridge Question Time on 18 November at the city’s Guildhall. Some 250 regional market-makers were in the room for a lively debate.
Emily Orton, co-founder of cybersecurity firm Darktrace, a spin-off from Cambridge university, said: “Certainly Brexit has an impact on business. We rely on world tech talent, so we would like to see that situation secured for the future, especially as we have offices across Europe.”
Visa for work
Andrew Lansley, chair of the Cambridge Development Forum, warned that attracting the brightest people into the city would require “serious work”.
“We are quite likely to end up without freedom of movement and with a ‘visa for work’ system. We need to be able to attract talent globally, otherwise it will be difficult to sustain our world-leading characteristics, particularly in the research field, that we have achieved.”
He added that the UK’s relationship with the US would be critical, and prime minister Theresa May had to protect principles such as formality-free opportunities to export.
“We don’t have basic information like customs formalities on goods across Europe, for example, and if it is 5%, it is a big deal. There must be a plan by March.”
The panellists noted that Cambridge’s long-standing infrastructure issues and inability to transport a growing workforce with ease were also a barrier to economic success.
Richard Janes, head of development at Savills in Cambridge, said until it was more expensive to use a car in the city, people would continue to drive.
William Jewson, development director at the Howard Group, added that a mooted metro system was not viable.
“The reality is the cost and the scale of the endeavour – it is not something that can be achieved quickly.”
Derek Carr, partner at accountancy firm PEM, suggested a tech solution: “They have a metro in London and there is still congestion; it is not a solution. We are the centre of tech, there must be some fantastic solution such as unmanned buses and taxis helping people get around. We should be using tech to solve this problem.”
As well as moving people around the city, panellists warned that housing the growing population was one of the city’s major challenges, with homes being few in number and expensive.
Mark Reeve, chairman of the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Enterprise Partnership, added: “We are moving towards a truly fabricated approach, but on the supply side, it is a real challenge with the labour skills shortage. We have a medieval city. Does everybody need to be in the centre or can we make this more outward looking?”
Varied solutions
Supply was coming on stream, but slowly, according to Savills’ Janes. He said Cambridge had more development last year in proportion to its size than anywhere else in the UK and more could be expected from the private rental sector.
Lansley called for a focus on first-time buyers and buy to rent, and the discussion moved to the subject of a metropolitan leader to push the measures through.
Elections for a metropolitan mayor for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are due in May, but an audience poll revealed that fewer would plump for one of the panellists (7%) than for an outsider with no political ties to Cambridge (76%). Some 18% disagreed with the notion of a mayor at all, thinking it dangerous to concentrate power to one individual.
“There must be a way of taking it away from politics. The idea of adding another layer does seem to compound the problem – unless you have a visionary who can, it will just be an idea,” said Carr.
Himself a favourite for the mayoral position, Lansley added: “The solution has to be something simple, without tiers of local government fighting about what the answers should be.
“The economical geography of Cambridge is about scale. We will have to scale up, which means coming out of Cambridge and developing centres beyond that. We have to come out of the centre and then we will stand a chance, but getting that means Cambridge and Peterborough working with Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire.
“That has to be the consequence for somebody with the ability in the heart of the region – a mayor to say, ‘Let’s put a plan together.’”
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