APPROPRIATE JOBS/WORKSPACE
Intense growth in the South and East of the country creates jobs in areas where there is already effectively full employment. The only shortage of homes in the area applies to homes that are truly affordable. To recruit more jobs, and then to argue that more homes are needed to support these new jobs is ludicrous. The jobs that are desperately needed are green jobs: those that will enable existing homes to be retrofitted, and the training that accompanies them; and care jobs. The councils acknowledge that they do not have the power in the local plan to determine which jobs will be filling the employment spaces. There is evidence that high-tech employment growth is actually damaging to low-skilled workers. It is also disingenuous to expect that the people moving into these new homes will be the same people as those taking the new jobs. Currently there are many residents who commute to jobs outside Cambridge (indeed, Cambridge is sold as a cheaper housing alternative to London, while being commutable), and many others who work in Cambridge but choose to live outside and commute in. The projected workspace also does not take into account the changing world of work which the pandemic has prompted. Office demand is becoming less with flexible working and hot-desking; shops are closing because of greater on-line purchasing.