Silicon Valley by the Cam? Only place Government can build 250,000 new homes is Cloud Cuckoo Land

We have quoted one innovator after another critical of palatial policies to make our semiconductor and life science industries the pride of Europe based on an insultingly low spend. 

Their arguments have been that money pledged by No.10 and the Treasury to bolster our tech and bio sectors on a global scale amount to no more than a drop in the Atlantic Ocean. Nor are there plans backed by proper industrial strategy that will stand the test of time.

We can quote single acquisitions by US life science and tech companies of Cambridge businesses that dwarf the total amounts the UK Government has pledged to tech and life science combined: Money that it will probably not have to even start spending if it loses power in a General Election. So, nothing but empty, meaningless promises.

There comes a time when the rhetoric is simply not funny anymore. Just ask South Cambridgeshire councillors.

They picked up a national Sunday newspaper yesterday to read a headline about creating Silicon Valley by the Cam – a plan allegedly propped up by Michael Gove with an alleged desire to build 250,000 homes by 2040 and make this Cluster a tech metropolis.

Assuming the accuracy of the source information this latest claim caps the lot. The Government clearly hasn’t had much dialogue with Cambridge University colleges and local landowners lately.

Nor would it appear that they have been in close confab with planning chiefs who tend not to take kindly to mass construction on green belt. A long queue of mega-rich real estate companies, many from the US, will happily testify to the sterility of dialogue on the topic.

To put it mildly, 50,000 homes would be a challenge. But 250,000? No wonder the City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council were moved to hit out.

I quote from the South Cambs angle today: “Leading councillors in South Cambridgeshire have said they have been left in the dark over the Government’s concept to rapidly increase growth in and around Cambridge, following a report in The Times [sic] over the weekend.

“The Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council said that she had no knowledge of the Government’s idea to turn Cambridge into Britain’s Silicon Valley by boosting building and adding as many as 250,000 new homes, on top of the around 50,000 already being planned by councils in Greater Cambridge.

“South Cambridgeshire District Council will now be contacting Michael Gove to ask for more information as the Leader of the Council has said plans of this scale are not appropriate and Cambridge and the surrounding area cannot solve the nation’s housing crisis.

“The Times [sic] reported that Michael Gove and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities would be considering relaxing environmental standards to boost building. South Cambridgeshire’s District Council’s central value is to be ‘green to our core’ and leading councillors say that any plans that do not protect and enhance the environment would be totally unacceptable.

“When the emerging Local Plan for Greater Cambridge was published earlier this year – a process that considers how growth is managed into the future – the Council said that those plans, which are a fraction of the Government’s proposal, could only be delivered if greater clarity could be provided about where water will come from in future. They also said that ‘assurances are required that providing the necessary water will not cause unacceptable environmental harm’.”

The statement goes on to quote Cllr Bridget Smith, Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council who says: “We had no knowledge of this concept Michael Gove and his department are reported to be working up. We will be contacting him to find out more, as this is simply not appropriate. 

“The scale of this plan is vast when compared to the growth our evidence has shown is needed here, and for it to even be suggested that the environmental standards could be relaxed is a huge concern. 

“We know we need to deliver some growth, but that must be in a managed way, and for any meaningful growth to take place here we need assurances over a water supply that does not have a negative impact on the environment.”

How to win friends and influence people eh? Assuming the Sunday Times report was on the money – and no denials have been issued – one has to wonder how the Government thinks it is going to win public support by alienating the very people whose backing they need to achieve even a modicum of these alleged desires.

One hates to deploy such underhand tactics as to quote facts and figures at the Government that has helped produce them, but the latest census figures on local population growth do not support the need for 250,000 homes.

Unless the Government has reached a deal with every company based in Silicon Valley to up sticks and relocate to Cambridge, bringing their entire workforces with them?

Oh, sorry – you are not meant to know about that – it’s next week‘s fantasy.