The extent of devolved powers for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough were revealed today by communities secretary Sajid Javid, giving a greater idea of the powers of the new mayor.
Under the devolution agreement, there will be “significant new funding”, including £600m for economic growth and £170m for housing, alongside new powers over transport, planning and a new public land commission.
The mayor will have considerable powers over the strategic direction of the seven authorities that will be part of the combined authority.
This will, according to Carter Jonas’ head of planning and development in Cambridge Colin Brown, help provide top-down planning for many of the issues affecting the area: notably housing development around Cambridge and the ensuing infrastructure it needs.
“From the property sector, people do care, and there is the potential for the role to do a lot of good. One of the things that has perhaps been missing from the planning and development sector of late has been strategic planning,” he said.
Residents of the region will vote for one of seven mayoral candidates on 4 May.
Under the deal the new area will receive:
- Control over a new investment fund of £20m a year over the next 30 years.
- Planning and housing powers to manage planning across the region – including a £100m housing investment fund and an additional £70m ring-fenced for Cambridge city to meet its housing needs.
- The ability to place a supplement on business rates to fund infrastructure.
- A devolved transport budget and transport powers to help provide a more modern, better-connected network.
Rob Hopwood, planning partner at Bidwells, said: “The area will benefit substantially from new and direct investment in all areas of commerce and infrastructure. Devolution also places decision making and funds in the hands of local organisations and people, and this will ensure that new projects and initiatives are closely aligned with local need and opportunity.”
Alongside funding, there will also be changes to how land and housing supply is allocated, with the mayoral authority overseeing the creation of a non-statutory spatial framework which will guide allocations and future local plans for the whole area.
This will include proposals to deliver the 29,000 homes needed over the period 2016-2021 and 72,000 homes over the longer period of local plans
The difficulty, however, may lie in encouraging development and investment away from Cambridge to other parts of the combined authority.
“The brand is Cambridge, and that’s the brand people want to trade off,” said Brown.
The mayor will also oversee a joint investment and assets board, which will review all land and property in public sector ownership to ensure there is sufficiently balanced supply of available sites and a land commission to develop a database of public and private site availability.
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