Greater Cambridge Local Plan Issues & Options 2020

Yes, strongly agree

Yes, strongly agree. Trinity College Cambridge recognises the importance of trees in creating a pleasant environment. Since it’s opening in the 1970s the open fields on which Cambridge Science Park was first established have been extensively landscaped including the planting of a wide range of shrubs and trees. In future, the choice of trees within the Science Park and more widely should be considered in terms of their CO2 sequestration value. Cambridge Science Park North will make a commitment to raising awareness of our current environmental issues and demonstrating how we can reduce the damage caused by carbon emissions, chemical pollutants and particulates. One opportunity being considered is the introduction of a woodland creation project – during the planting, the project could involve local schools to support children’s awareness of environmental issues and the importance of woodland and trees as a natural capital resource. This would be in line with the Commission for Climate Change’s recommendations to increase tree planting in order to deliver the UK Government’s Net Zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 205013.

From a socio-economic perspective, a key factor affecting social inclusion is access to education and training opportunities for existing residents, which in turn facilitate the ability of those residents to access and reap the benefits of the jobs delivered by economic growth. Ensuring that residents have the opportunities to develop their education and training levels, such as those that would be afforded by Cambridge Science Park North through job opportunities, apprenticeships and the development of the Cambridge Regional College (CRC), would be key to promoting wellbeing and social inclusion for Greater Cambridgeshire residents. Cambridge Science Park has established and will continue to undertake positive engagement with local communities, there is a strong desire to inspire the next generation of innovation. 13 Committee for Climate Change (January 2020); Land use: Policies for a Net Zero UK Cambridge Science Park North offers the potential to co-locate workspace required by CRC with playing field provision. This has the potential to offer multiple benefits including: • Provision of learning space to fulfil the requirements of a growing population. CRC is already at capacity, and future planned growth in the surrounding area will only add to demand. • Locating apprenticeship opportunities within cycling and walking distance to one of Greater Cambridgeshire’s most deprived areas. • Breaking down barriers to employment for students following vocational training routes and providing inspiring learning opportunities within a thriving Science Park environment. Crucially though, without skilled manufacturing opportunities in Cambridge, there will be a shortage of job opportunities for people who want to work in a technical or engineering environment but do not have the qualifications to undertake the roles that require a university degree. These include students at the Cambridge Regional College and North Cambridge Academy. If Cambridge can supply the manufacturing space required by these companies, a new category of jobs could be created. This would help to close the inequality gap in the city, and help lift families out of poverty, particularly those in the immediate vicinity of the proposed development such as Arbury and Kings Hedges. The site is extremely well linked to existing public transport corridors, located on the existing guided busway to Northstowe and within close proximity to Cambridge North Railway Station. The recently published consultation for CAM includes a Cambridge Science Park North stop, which Trinity College Cambridge supports and wholly endorses as a forward-thinking approach to infrastructure provision. The land identified is close to the current Cambridge Science Park and can be easily physically linked allowing Trinity College Cambridge to nurture and encourage this addition as it has done for the existing Science Park for the last 50 years. This custodianship provides a level of certainty to both the Local Planning Authority as decision maker, the neighbouring residents as those likely to be directly affected as well as ultimately the end users of the site. Development that is accessible by a range of travel options will increase social inclusion. Walking and cycling infrastructure provided as the priority and primary means of transport within new developments will greatly assist wellbeing. Shared mobility, travel and mobility hubs provide opportunities for social interaction, again breaking down perceived barriers between the high-tech research and crucial skilled manufacturing of commercial products. Cambridge Science Park North is being developed with a focus on the wellbeing and health of employees and neighbouring residents. A substantial (circa 90 hectares) of land will be provided which will incorporate a network of new green infrastructure; with links to Milton Country Park. This land will provide improvements to biodiversity, habitat connectivity and the introduction of natural capital; new and enhanced walking and cycle routes; and access to new recreational and playing field provision. Through collaboration, partnership work with vocational institutions schools and fostering an environment of innovation Cambridge Science Park North will work to ensure equality of opportunity for all and the removal of structural inequalities and barriers (both perceived and actual) within the Science and Technology innovation sector.

The Local Plan should ensure that development designs around walking and cycling first with vehicle movements as a secondary consideration. It should support car free/ car limited development in accordance with the NPPF14. Cambridge Science Park North will provide employment, training and open space opportunities accessible to new residents in the North East Cambridge Area Action Plan Area. In addition, the site is to be located in close proximity to some of the poorer areas of Cambridge. A new masterplan is being developed for Cambridge Science Park and Cambridge Science Park North is being designed to ensure that the buildings have active frontages to high capacity transit corridors to ensure that they are well lit and overlooked routes. New development should always seek to address these corridors to make walking / cycling and public transport the safest and most appealing route. 14 PPF (February 2019) paragraph 122c

New development can support healthy lifestyles through the measures proposed by the Local Plan options document as well as ensuring that environmental factors that affect human health and wellbeing are minimised, such as: • Ensuring high levels of air quality, such as through air quality neutral requirements, limiting fossil fuel use/ combustion in residential areas and a high quality of air quality monitoring with mitigation requirements. • Noise quality assessment and acoustic quality requirements, particularly for sensitive uses. • Thermal comfort requirements for developments to demonstrates that homes and sensitive land uses do not overheat and that all developments are adapted to climate change. • Increase electric vehicle charging infrastructure. • Encourage shared surfaces that prioritise play, pedestrians and green infrastructure. Encouraging walking and cycling infrastructure to be developed and prioritised in development will greatly assist healthy lifestyles The World Health Organisation15 recommends that large areas of open space should be within 1.6km of residents homes in order to promote healthy lifestyles. Cambridge Science Park North is being developed with a focus on the wellbeing and health of employees and neighbouring residents. A substantial (circa 90 hectares) of land will be provided which will incorporate a network of new green infrastructure; with links to Milton Country Park. This land will provide improvements to biodiversity, habitat connectivity and the introduction of natural capital; new and enhanced walking and cycle routes; and access to new recreational and playing field provision. 15 Urban green spaces and health; WHO, (2016)

In accordance with the NPPF16 opportunities to improve air quality should be considered at the plan-making stage. Methods to achieve improvements in air quality include investing in walking, cycling and public transport. The government announcement to bring forward to 2035 the end date for new diesel- and petrol-powered vehicles falls within the plan period, so this needs to be considered as part of the new Local Plan. For example, ensuring the providing of infrastructure such as charging facilities for electric vehicles and Personal Light Electric Vehicles (PLEV) is in place. The plans for Cambridge Science Park North are being developed with air quality considerations from the outset. This is twofold – reducing harmful emissions at source through the focus on access to work primarily by walking, cycling and the existing and planned public transport routes will be coupled with a move to consolidate parking to one location within the site for those that have to drive. Secondly, improving air quality by the addition of substantial areas of green space and enhanced vegetation. Cambridge Science Park North is being developed with a substantial (circa 90 hectares) area of green space providing: • A network of new green infrastructure; with links to Milton Country Park, and the communities in Histon & Impington, Arbury and Kings Hedges. • Woodland and vegetation planting mediating carbon emissions, chemical pollutants and particulates. • Landscape and visual enhancements taking existing agricultural land and creating a valuable green asset for neighbouring communities and employees. • Improvements to biodiversity, habitat connectivity and the introduction of natural capital. • New and enhanced walking and cycle routes. • Improved access to new recreational and playing field provision. 16 NPPF Paragraph 181

Very important

Yes, strongly agree. It is crucial that the plan tackles strategic scale thinking to enable plan led economic growth. Paragraph 80 of the NPPF endorses this approach in its assertion that: ‘ Planning policies and decisions should help create the conditions in which businesses can invest, expand and adapt. Significant weight should be placed on the need to support economic growth and productivity, taking into account both local business needs and wider opportunities for development. The approach taken should allow each area to build on its strengths, counter any weaknesses and address the challenges of the future. This is particularly important where Britain can be a global leader in driving innovation [40], and in areas with high levels of productivity, which should be able to capitalise on their performance and potential.’ Continued economic growth is the only way for an area to achieve long term improvements in socioeconomic living standards for the benefit of all residents. Although it is acknowledged that the Local Plan must balance additional considerations alongside this, economic growth should be at the forefront of local planning priorities to ensure Cambridge continues to develop as an internationally leading city. This will in turn underpin the ability to achieve better and more inclusive outcomes for current and future residents. Importantly, Greater Cambridge has the ability through economic growth to create worldwide solutions to key environment, medical and sustainability issues. Cambridge Science Park and Cambridge Science Park North will continue to invest in green and clean tech, artificial intelligence, and innovative solutions to the big issues facing the world today. In line with the UK Industrial Strategy investment of the scale proposed at Cambridge Science Park North provides positive economic growth for future generations of employees, future economic benefits to residents and advancements for the benefit of wider society as a whole. Trinity College Cambridge wish to highlight the underlying trend of skilled manufacturing and development space being lost and not replaced in the right locations, the need to catch up with predicted growth, and therefore the importance to ensure that land is allocated in a planned manner to bring forward the benefits.

Although there exists a need for a number of different commercial use types, Greater Cambridgeshire derives its international reputation as a leading city area from the knowledgeintensive businesses it supports. The shortage of sufficient and appropriate commercial floorspace for these businesses would threaten the economic advantage Greater Cambridgeshire holds in these industries, putting at risk the employment and economic activity they generate for local residents and therefore the UK as a whole. Cambridge benefits from an incredibly successful Research and Development based economy. Indeed, Cambridge is home to companies that are famous for innovation. Trinity College through its development and nurturing of Cambridge Science Park has always been a pioneer in terms of supporting growth in Science and Technology in Cambridge. Innovation involves a high degree of risk; in particular, the risk that products may not perform in the real world in the same way they did in the laboratory or workshop. Often products need to be redesigned or adapted to meet the needs of the market. Moreover, in order to stay ahead of their competitors, research intensive companies need to implement a programme of continuous innovation. They cannot afford to stand still. Technology companies will increasingly prefer to undertake their manufacturing close to their research base where changes in design can easily be implemented and new product ideas rapidly prototyped and tested. This is particularly true in the case of the low-volume, high value products such as robotics, medical devices, electronics and batteries - areas where Cambridge leads the world. Whilst there is a good supply of premises suitable for undertaking product research, when it comes to high quality, affordable prototyping manufacturing and testing space, there is a major shortage. This type of employment use needs to operate from larger buildings and cannot operate from the stock of offices and laboratories currently available within the local market. Available suitable space is being and has been lost from both the Cambridge area and the existing Cambridge Science Park itself due to increasing office and laboratory values; and lost as a result of past and proposed housing development and allocations. This shortage means companies are being forced to undertake their manufacturing in other regions of the UK or overseas. The geographic distance between their research and manufacturing facilities can negatively impact their business performance, not least because it creates a culture of “them and us”. At Cambridge Science Park North new skilled manufacturing employment opportunities would be created to support the growth of exportable high-value, low-volume science and technology product development. The impending relocation of Marshalls and uncertainty with regard to timescales, amplifies the need for investment in this type of job and employment growth within the Cambridge economy. Providing more balanced employment opportunities in skilled manufacturing in the short term, whilst providing longer term economic growth.

As a result of the constraints it faces, there is a significant shortage of both residential and commercial floorspace across Greater Cambridge. The excess demand for both use types has clearly resulted in increased pressure upon existing business and industrial space. The conversion of existing commercial space to residential development has only exacerbated this problem and will continue to do so with the existing allocations for residential in the current plan being zoned for residential uses. The business and industrial space within Greater Cambridge is a significant source of employment for local residents and plays a key role in drawing commercial activity to the area. A lack of sufficient business and industrial space has the potential to increase rental rates and drive businesses out of the area, Cambridgeshire and the UK altogether. High residential land values and a scarcity of developable land in Cambridge mean that there will be a continuing pressure on employment floorspace from other uses. Space for skilled manufacturing and development is a key part of the Greater Cambridge economy, and is identified as essential for the UK economy as a whole. However, this type of employment space is being pushed out of Cambridge, either allocated for housing or higher value employment space. As a key element of the Greater Cambridge economy these uses will need to find new homes. With specific reference to skilled manufacturing associated with science and technology research and development this needs to be in close proximity to Cambridge, the innovation clusters, employees and research. The Local Plan should not only seek to ensure that existing business and industrial space is protected in planning policy but should seek the provision of additional floorspace wherever possible in order to maximise the economic growth it can facilitate.

The existing knowledge-intensive sectors have enabled economic development for the Greater Cambridgeshire area and provided the area with its international reputation. Although it is clear that a range of types of jobs are necessary to provide employment for all existing residents, local planning policy should not support the development of different jobs at the expense of knowledge intensive sectors. To encourage both economic growth and social inclusion for existing residents, the Local Plan should ensure that the knowledge-intensive sectors are supported and that residents have the greatest possible level of access to these employment opportunities, as well as the skills and opportunities to advance those skills which enable them to do so. At Cambridge Science Park North new skilled manufacturing employment opportunities would be created to support the growth of exportable high-value, low-volume science and technology product development. The impending relocation of Marshalls and uncertainty with regard to timescales, amplifies the need for investment in this type of job and employment growth within the Cambridge economy. Providing more balanced employment opportunities in skilled manufacturing in the short term, whilst providing longer term economic growth. The economic restructuring of the UK away from manufacturing towards service sectors has been ongoing over the last century. Over this time service employment has overtaken manufacturing. Within the last decades however, the decline in manufacturing has stabilised and the manufacturing which remains is highly productive and valuable to the UK economy. On average a third of manufacturing turnover is exported. For high-tech industries this rises to 59% and for mid-tech this is 42%. Just 14% of low-tech manufacturing turnover is exported17. This exportability proportion is important as it represents something that can be exported to other countries, thus assisting in reducing the UK’s balance of trade deficit. It is also an indicator of the innovative nature of these sectors, and their economic value. 17 ONS Turnover of Production Industries (See Volterra Report) The East of England is an economically important region, and Cambridge & South Cambridgeshire combined are a key employment node within this. Cambridge & South Cambridgeshire have grown at almost double the regional and national rate of growth, and around half of the growth experienced has been in professional, scientific and technical sectors. Cambridge is renowned as an area that fosters scientific and technological innovation within an institutional climate that exhibits academic excellence through expansive research and development practices. Consequently, there is already an obvious clustering of high- and mid-tech sectors in this area, and Cambridge Science Park plays a key role within this. Cambridge Science Park contains a variety of firms that specialise in various fields relating to research and development, tech-manufacturing, or a hybrid of both. On average nationally and regionally, high- and mid-tech employment combined constitute just 1011% of total employment. In Cambridge this is higher, at 15%; in South Cambridgeshire this is still higher at 33%, and when the local area around Cambridge Science Park is considered, high- and mid-tech employment make up a staggering 68% of the total employment18. This drives home the specific concentration of the type of employment supported at Cambridge Science Park. Not only is there a high prevalence of these sectors at Cambridge Science Park, it is also home to some of the more exportable subsectors within this employment sector. Cambridge Science Park has considerably higher exportability than the national average in both high-tech and mid-tech sectors. South Cambridgeshire is similarly above the national average, although less evidently than Cambridge Science Park itself. This is an indicator that even within the productive sectors of high-tech and mid-tech, Cambridge Science Park exhibits a greater concentration of highly exportable industries than the average for these already very productive sectors. This further indicates (a) that the sectors which choose to locate at Cambridge Science Park are highly valuable with high rates of exports, and (b) there is an environment at Cambridge Science Park which engenders productivity. Given the national drive towards increasing productivity, retaining innovative industries and supporting growth in industries that can increase the UK’s export base, this underlines the importance of Cambridge Science Park, not just to the Cambridge area, but also regionally and nationally. Best practise global examples reveal that the most important factors to encourage growth of tech sectors are investment, clustering, business support and physical space. Lessons from tech clusters world-wide teach us the importance of diversification and collaboration, and that the biggest challenge is enabling the required delivery of commercial space in a planned and cohesive manner that these clusters need in order to enable them to grow. 18 ONS BRES, Volterra estimates of high- and mid-tech definitions (See Volterra Report) There is already an evident clustering of both high and mid-tech sectors in Cambridge, and specifically at Cambridge Science Park. Clusters exist because firms benefit from agglomeration economies – access to skilled workers, access to markets & supply chain, and the ability to benefit from knowledge spill overs. A science park with the supporting infrastructure to maximise and facilitate such benefits offers the best opportunity for new businesses to survive, innovate and flourish. Cambridge Science Park can learn from the examples of best practise and build on the success it has already delivered through: investment by Trinity, business support linked to the existing Cambridge Science Park, access to appropriately skilled labour, (which can have the added benefit of positively impacting upon the local community). Crucially this land needs to be allocated now so that future growth is not constrained. Skilled manufacturing and development operations need a slightly different physical space offering from high-tech. they are more cost sensitive and they require more physical space per worker. South Cambridgeshire has historically met this need. Increasing however there are examples of firms being crowded out and of more and more space being lost to other uses. If sufficient land is not available for growth, the growth will be lost from South Cambridgeshire, and potentially even from the UK altogether. Volterra have undertaken a scenario-based forecasting exercise for mid-tech in this location. Three scenarios are presented within the report: – central trend based, low (constrained by space), and high growth (facilitated by a supportive cluster-based growth node). Considered over the plan period to 2031, this would equate to growth in mid-tech jobs of between 250 and 1,000 each year, or between 3,200 – 18,100 to 2031. Based on the floorspace requirements of skilled manufacturing and development occupiers, this would be expected to require c. 80,000 - 450,000 sqm of new floorspace, which equates to c. 0.9m - 4.9m sqft of floorspace. These forecasts deliberately present a very large range. There are many factors which contribute to whether the area can achieve the high growth scenario. If growth is not enabled and is instead constrained to meet the poorest of past performing levels, less space will be required. Linked to this however considerably fewer jobs opportunities are generated, along with their associated economic value and export base. If, however, growth is prioritised and planned, the past performance, speciality and evidence of strong clusters, provides confidence that significant growth could be achieved above and beyond the central scenario. Approximately 1.5m-2m sqft of new space could be delivered at Cambridge Science Park North. As the evidence demonstrates, these firms like to cluster and when they do cluster they are more productive, and thus delivering this quantum of floorspace in one location and integrated with Cambridge Science Park offers the potential to facilitate the higher scenario rate of mid-tech / skilled manufacturing and development employment growth. Cambridge Science Park could deliver c. 7,500 new jobs, contributing c. £470m in GVA each year to the economy, resulting in increased tax revenues of c. £165m. Cambridge Science Park is full, and Bidwells evidence shows that South Cambridgeshire sites are getting harder to find, as more and more get converted into residential accommodation. At the central rate of growth (continuing on past trends), Cambridge Science Park North would be full in c.6-10 years. The high growth scenario would suggest space at Cambridge Science Park North would be full in 3-5 years which would represent an ambitious and rapid programme for growth. Even in the low growth scenario we would expect the space to be full within 20 years. The approach is aimed to be both ambitious in terms of creating a world-leading mid-tech cluster but also to support the long-term growth goals of the area. Whilst there is considerable variation in the scale of potential growth in the three options, these options suggest that regardless of the growth scenario which unfolds, the space would become filled. The rate of take up and growth of the industry is highly interdependent upon available space and the condition for growth being enabled. The overarching conclusion therefore is that there is already a strong, economically productive and important mid-tech cluster in this area. There are identified physical constraints to this growth continuing in the future. Cambridge Science Park under the custodianship of Trinity College Cambridge has a track record of providing the business support and physical requirements that are needed for firms to cluster and in turn benefit from agglomeration economies. There is an opportunity to build on this and deliver much needed innovative, and exportable, economic growth which is important both to the local Cambridge economy but also more widely to the UK.

Cambridge Science Park North is a critical location for the Cambridge and UK economy, and land focused on skilled manufacturing and development of science and technology products linked to research and development undertaken on Cambridge Science Park should be allocated for employment land in the emerging Local Plan. Cambridge Science Park North will benefit from close proximity and be physically linked to Cambridge Science Park and the benefits of this identified cluster. The site is in a sustainable location, located within walking and cycling distance of existing residents and new homes planned as part of the North East Cambridge Area Action Plan. The site benefits from a position within close proximity to Cambridge North Railway Station, the existing Guided Busway link to Northstowe, and the proposed CAM route to Waterbeach. Indeed a planned stop within Cambridge Science Park North can be developed as part of a wider sustainable transport hub, connecting non-car modes of transport within and beyond the Science Park cluster. Cambridge Science Park North is located within 6km of a proposed 43,600 new homes planned to 2031. Connecting employment and housing by walking, cycling and sustainable public transport infrastructure. Cambridge Science Park North can supply the manufacturing space required to support the Research and Development already being undertaken by Science and Technology companies. Emerging technologies and continual innovation in this crucial element of the UK economy mean that new categories of skilled manufacturing employment could be created. This would help to close the inequality gap in the city, and help lift families out of poverty, particularly those in the immediate vicinity of the proposed development such as Arbury and Kings Hedges. Crucially though, without these manufacturing companies in Cambridge, there is a shortage of job opportunities for people who want to work in a technical or engineering environment but do not have the qualifications to undertake the roles that require a university degree. Opportunities that could benefit students at the Cambridge Regional College and North Cambridge Academy. Cambridge Regional College will be sited between Cambridge Science Park and Cambridge Science Park North, with teaching facilities being located within Cambridge Science Park North and apprenticeship opportunities being created. Linking these activities and working to raise aspirations and remove barriers. As a result of the historical and heritage constraints present in the City of Cambridge, there are limited opportunities for the development of employment space within the city centre. In order to address the shortages of employment space faced within the Greater Cambridgeshire area, planning policy should therefore focus on developing the space surrounding the city but well connected to public transport infrastructure to enable further economic growth within the area. Several examples already exist of successful employment locations outside the city centre, benefitting from the advantages of locating in proximity to a world-leading university but without the prohibitive cost of being in the city centre. These locations, particularly those with a higher level of transport accessibility, have the potential to generate employment at a greater density, enabling the connectivity and knowledge spill over benefits important for the knowledge-intensive industries Greater Cambridge supports. Certain industries, particularly high- and mid-tech sectors, benefit particularly from clustering, meaning that the co-location of these industries with one another results in a better economic outcome, greater productivity and greater growth. The development of these locations which enable this clustering and growth should be a priority for planning policy, as has taken place in a number of other cities within the UK.