Cambridge 'Global Tech Cities' report part 2: infrastructure planning and sustainable growth

Image: second panel at 'Global Tech Cities' at the Bradfield Centre with Mark Malcolm of Anglian Water speaking (far left)

In the second panel of Future Cities Forum's 'Global Tech Cities' event hosted by the Cambridge Science Park at the Bradfield Centre, Chair of the Cambridge Growth Company (CGC), Peter Freeman (formerly Chair of Homes England) joined Cllr Bridget Smith. Leader of South Cambridgeshire Council to discuss infrastructure provision for the city region with major utilities providers Anglian Water Group (Mark Malcolm, New Reservoirs Programme Director) and UK Power Networks (Neil Madgwick, Head of Service Delivery) as well as Daniel Johns, Managing Director of Water Resources East.

The CGC is a company limited by guarantee and a subsidiary of Homes England, the government’s housing and regeneration agency. On the 30 October 2024, the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook MP, appointed Peter Freeman to chair the CGC.

The government has committed £10m of funding to enable the CGC to develop an ambitious plan for the housing, transport, water, and wider infrastructure for Cambridge.

The CGC is supported by an Advisory Council consisting of elected local leaders and experts. It works with local and central government, convening and leveraging central government resources to promote and unlock key projects and to support local authorities and landowners to deliver the infrastructure needed to help unblock barriers to sustainable growth. It has established itself as a government supported, pro-growth company working closely and collaboratively with local elected leaders to overcome obstacles to growth and to promote sustainable, infrastructure-led development and economic growth.

The panel was asked about objections and challenges to the 'Bonkers Busway' - the name given to the guided busway by campaigners against the infrastructure project, that is planned as a link between the new town of Cambourn via the Bourn Airfield housing development, villages of Hardwick and Coton and the important 160-acre Cambridge West science site (owned by the University of Cambridge and which hosts national labs in physics and aeronautical engineering).

Cllr Bridget Smith commented on the particular sustainability issues around putting more vehicles on the road and the creation of more carbon emissions:

'We have 25% higher carbon emissions than the national average in this part of the country because of our car use. In the village where I live, 14 miles outside Cambridge, there is no nearby rail station so people have no option but to use their cars. This is not sustainable. The so-called 'Bonkers Busway' in fact will be very important as it will take thousands of cars off the roads, and will have a .knock-on effect as the attractiveness of Cambridgeshire as a place to invest in and live in.'

Above: CGI of proposed Fens Reservoir for Anglian Water and Cambridge Water - courtesy Fereday Pollard and LDA Design

Beyond transport improvements, water scarcity has also put a break on development. When asked about the challenges of providing enough water for growth across the the city and region, Daniel Johns of Water Resources East responded:

'WRE was put together 10 years back - combining water companies, local authorities, farming groups and land-owners - as we are the driest part of the UK and we knew there would be challenges coming down the track. Cambridge Water is a small water company serving 200, 000 customers with few sources elsewhere and it cannot rely on extracting more water from the chalk aquifers beneath our feet. It has to rely on on inter-regional transfers into the Cambridge region. The plan we drew up encompasses billions of pounds going into water infrastructure and relaxing extraction from the aquifers.

'Things have moved on since we drew up our plan, especially on the national ambitions for housing. We heard on Sunday, announcements of new towns including Tempsford in Bedfordshire (in the OxCam Growth Corridor) and the Milton Keynes growth plan - these have the same water demand potentially as Cambridge.

'Water recycling is important and a significant challenge. Peter has asked questions about grey water recycling and data centre development No data centre developer in the east of England will be able to access potable water for cooling as there are other options available in theory such as closed loop and using waste water.

'There are regulatory challenges, however. Waste water is considered waste but it needs to be seen as a resource. There needs to be a means of using grey water for cooling data centres, for certain types of agriculture and for watering race courses, for instance.'

Daniel was asked why is there so much tension over the cost of water? He answered:

'Water is too cheap. Bills are rising but from a very low base. Cambridge Water has some of the lowest charges in the country. The more that large businesses use the cheaper it gets per unit. There is a consultation to change that tariff structure. There is a lot of use that is profligate. We need to ensure that potable water is not used by businesses that could use other types so potable can be released for new businesses coming down the track and for new housing that is built to be as water efficient as possible. We need to value water more.'

Director of the New Reservoir Programme at Anglian Water Group, Mark Malcolm added:

'Cambridge is the perfect storm stemming from both growth and the environmental drivers that need new infrastructure. We have two new reservoirs planned. The Fens Reservoir north of Chatteris which will be similar in size to Grafham Water (near Huntingdon). This new reservoir will supply 250,000 properties and is a joint promotion with Cambridge Water. We have another planned in Lincolnshire.

'By scale they are NSIPs (Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects) and they need development consent orders, which are highly complex and far reaching exercises. I was involved in the Hartree - north east Cambridge - Development Consent Order and it is a great shame that is not going ahead as it took years to get in place..

'Hartree has been a long journey. The initial deal was made in 2018 with partners Cambridge City Council and Homes England and we had a consented project ready. But the delivery phase was re-estimated and then it fell outside what central government would fund. There are discussions ongoing about our recycling site in Milton up the road from here, with a view to upgrading the facility there as a Plan B. I hope Plan A might still happen. We - at Anglian Water - are still very much committed to supplying water and waste water services to people and businesses in Cambridge.

'The medium term solution will be to supply Cambridge from Grafham which is just outside Huntingdon. This pipeline is being planned and consented at the moment so should be ready for 2032, then the Fens reservoir is expected by late 2030s, and looking further out there is de-salination planned on the east coast, and other recycling projects. There is a 25 year plan but it takes time.'

Daniel added:

'It is not just about the big strategic projects. We are being funded by the Cambridge Growth Company to see if we can work with farmers to build a network of smaller reservoirs, which could be built in two years rather than ten years - as they do not need the same complex planning consents as the NSIPs being created at Chatteris and in Lincolnshire - and they could significantly augment water supplies in the region.'

Image: sailing on Grafham Water, England's third largest reservoir, in Cambridgeshire (courtesy Grafham Sailing Club)

UK Power Networks, Head of Service Delivery, Neil Madgwick was brought into the discussion by being asked about the spiralling cost of energy infrastructure for the region:

'We have some of the best and easiest of our conversations in the Cambridge region as there is a strategic plan in place which allow us to plan holistically. On our side we have consistency with team members who know and love the area, so in this period of 2023 to 2028 we are doubling the power for the Cambridge municipal area. The key is to do this cost effectively and with not too much digging up of roads or re-stringing of cables....government has now taken a top down strategic view which is good. In the past it was bottom up. We can be more strategic now and joined up in our planning.

Neil was asked whether the move to heat pumps everywhere would put pressure on the supply of power:

'That's right because we now have the UK Industrial Strategy, the one and half million new homes, the Future Homes Standard, solar and EVs. All will mean that we probably will double the power that each home uses over the next ten years. We will need to accommodate that. Data centres have been mentioned and they are significant power users....we have long term view of what do of power means. There will be hard choices. Most of the generation is in Scotland with most of the use in the south. The bottleneck is not a problem for housing, but it will impact data centres.

'The 'motorways' of power lines need upgrading. The largest data centre we have on our network area will use 15% of London's peak power in one building! However the message to Cambridge is we can support housing and science campus development. At the same time we have to support strategic data centres and supply clean power for achieving net zero. There are a lot of moving parts.'

Image: the UK's only community-owned wind turbine at Gamlingay in South Cambridgeshire (courtesy Gamlingay Turbine Company)

Cllr Bridget Smith added:

'The other day I gave evidence to a select committee at Westminster to talk about incentives for communities being asked to adopt new energy technologies and infrastructure...and these ideas ranged from money in bank , free energy after 6 pm and so on.

'In my own village of Gamlingay we have the only community wind turbine in the country costing one million pounds. The community bought shares in the company and so it pays a tithes back, and money from it goes back into village projects.

'But all this needs leadership . Central government needs to to go a step further. I believe strongly that wherever the wind blows we should allow these things - new turbines and so on - for energy independence.

'On the subject of development it really annoys me that we are building houses today that will need retrofitting in five years' time. Government needs to address this issue.'

Simon Payne, former Director of Environment at Cambridge City Council and now Director of planning consultancy Lambsquay Consulting asked:

How can we deliver growth at a strategic scale when we rely on the market housing model - with many thousands of homes consented but unbuilt?'

Peter Freeman responded:

'What Bridget said about the Oliver Letwin report (*Independent Review of Build Out - 2018) is spot on but that goes back to who controls the system and who gets the land. If the starting system of who promotes land via local plan is a land owner, their planning consultant or their promoter it is always written by highest price of land, then government has to go one better. Whether it acquires the land or designs the master-plan it has to be absolutely clear that the development is mixed-use and mixed-tenure by default.

'Over the last 30 years there has been an acceptance by developers and land owners that CIL (community infrastructure levy), social housing allocation, Section 106s and so on, are part of the development package. If you look at the gross value for pure housing an acre of land in Cambridge would be going for two million pounds but in fact it's more likely to trade at around £300,000 to £400,000 as the mixed-use tenure is built in, with the Section 106 requirements and so on. The pressure to provide the infrastructure and social amenities for development, which contributes to making a place, is a very good thing.'

Image: Future Cities Forum was grateful to Jane Hutchings. Director of the Cambridge Science Park for hosting Future Cities Forum's 'Global Tech Cities' event at the Bradfield Centre, below.