Showcasing government support for the ecosystem
Greater Cambridge is one of a handful of places in the UK which benefits from devolved powers and budgets to stimulate economic growth as part of the devolution package agreed through the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority devolution deal, with the structures in place for further devolution to happen.
Local political leaders here have a strong track record of working in partnership to plan for high levels of growth and are recently united behind a new Local Industrial Strategy for the next decade, which has been co-authored with central Government.
Between 2012 and 2014, Greater Cambridge’s civic, business and academic communities came together to negotiate an innovative “City Deal” with the Government, bringing up to £500m Government funding to the area to address infrastructure challenges. This strategic infrastructure investment programme is being delivered by the Greater Cambridge Partnership.
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Economic Review (CPIER) was published in September 2018 and was swiftly adopted as a mandate for growth by local authorities in November 2018. The CPIER was led by Dame Kate Barker alongside a Commission made up of leading business and economic figures. Research and analysis were provided by the University of Cambridge, which was augmented by consultation with local businesses and communities.
The CPIER was launched by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in October 2018. The CPIER is considered by central Government to be an exceptional approach, particularly the fact that it created an independent and substantiated evidence base which was used as the key foundation for the Local Industrial Strategy.