Corporate Plan 2025-29

I grew up in Whittlesey, in the heart of the Fens. My parents were NHS nurses. I now live in Wansford, just outside Peterborough, where I was proud to serve as the local MP.  So, when I talk about Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, it’s personal.

As Mayor, I believe in being visible, active and accountable. You’ll see me out across every part of our region.

I’m here to get things done and to champion Cambridgeshire and Peterborough at every level, whether that’s in Westminster, with local partners or in our communities. This role should make a difference and, under my leadership, it will.

As Mayor, my mission is clear: to get Cambridgeshire and Peterborough moving. This Corporate Plan is our roadmap for the next four years. It’s how we unlock the fastest-growing economy outside London, boost transport, get more people into good jobs, build homes that inspire pride and make our region more resilient.

We are a region of possibilities, but we’ve been held back by underinvestment and missed opportunities. This plan sets out how we start to change that. We’ll deliver projects that matter, from better roads and rail connections to new skills programmes. Whether it’s powering up the economy to powering your home, I want this region to work for everyone.

We’ll back what works, collaborate where we can, and push government where we must. Above all, we will focus on one thing: delivery.

This isn’t another document to be forgotten. It’s a commitment to our residents and businesses.

Let’s get moving.

This Corporate Plan sets a bold and focused direction for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority for the years 2025 to 2029. It marks a renewed commitment to delivering real outcomes for our region, shaped by the ambitions of the newly elected Mayor, the evolving needs of our communities and positioning the organisation to maximise the benefits of devolution

Our purpose is to get Cambridgeshire and Peterborough moving. We will:

• Drive economic growth
• Improve connectivity
• Create good jobs
• Deliver quality homes
• Strengthen regional resilience
• Enhance organisational performance

This plan brings together our strategic vision and Mayoral priorities into one shared roadmap for action. Our six core objectives — Growth, Connectivity, Jobs, Homes, Resilience and Performance — are not standalone goals, but interconnected foundations that support a thriving, inclusive future. They reflect both the potential and the challenges we face as a region.

A key part of delivering these ambitions is our Local Growth Plan. This plan builds on the unique strengths and opportunities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to support growth-driving sectors, identify wider priorities for the business environment, and provide a clear framework to focus and unlock investment. Together, these plans guide how we will accelerate growth and prosperity.

Since the Mayoral election, the Combined Authority has worked with focus and urgency to align behind a new strategic direction. We’ve moved from a period of improvement to one of continuous transformation. Our commitment to excellence is underpinned by our CIVIL Values: Collaboration, Integrity, Vision, Innovation, and Leadership. These guide not just what we do, but how we do it.

Through this Corporate Plan we, together with stakeholders will deliver against the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Shared Ambition Outcomes of being an Equitable, Pioneering, Connected and Resilient region. Outcomes shaped through extensive collaboration with local councils, communities, businesses and other partners in 2024 and representing a shared vision for the region’s future.

We start from a position of strength. Our economy has grown by billions since the Authority was founded. We are home to a world-leading innovation cluster, iconic global companies, and a growing university sector. But we also recognise the need for better infrastructure, more equitable access to opportunity, and more sustainable development if we are to truly unlock the full potential of our region.

This Corporate Plan honours our legacy of innovation and ambition. It sets out how we will work with partners, communities and government to embrace the opportunities presented by the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, and how we will make the case for the resources and powers needed to deliver lasting change.

With strong foundations, a united purpose, and a clear plan of action, we are ready to meet the challenges of the next four years and beyond — thinking big, acting decisively, and delivering for the people of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority was established in 2017 through a landmark devolution agreement with Government to take forward economic growth, improved infrastructure and devolved powers across key areas such as transport, skills, housing and economic development.

Since its inception, the CPCA has worked to deepen devolution to realise the region’s ambition of doubling GVA and improving the lives of our residents.

At the heart of the Combined Authority is a powerful partnership between our seven Constituent Councils – Cambridge City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, Fenland District Council, Huntingdonshire District Council, Peterborough City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council.

The Combined Authority is led by a directly elected Mayor and governed by a Board comprising the Mayor, the Leaders of the Constituent Councils, and key regional partners. Together, they provide strategic direction, ensuring the Authority operates with clear accountability and a shared commitment to the region’s success.

The Combined Authority works together with businesses, education providers, healthcare, emergency services, and community organisations. We are committed to delivering growth and improving the lives of people across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

This is a moment of transition and opportunity. This Corporate Plan sets out how we will respond. It outlines our commitment to delivering the best outcomes for our region, based on the principle that decisions made locally are more accountable and better informed.

The introduction of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill marks a fundamental shift in the scale and scope of responsibilities for the regions. Once enacted, this Bill will significantly expand the powers of the Mayor and the Combined Authority, across a wide range of vital areas including transport, strategic planning, economic development, regeneration, health and public safety.

The Bill paves the way for achieving Established Mayoral Strategic Authority status and securing a long-term integrated funding settlement, providing greater stability, funding flexibility, autonomy and regional influence.

The Combined Authority currently holds Mayoral Strategic Authority status. Our ambition is to achieve Established Mayoral Strategic Authority status, unlocking the ability to request further powers and funding from Central Government.

Amid local government reorganisation, new national policies and major reforms including a Modern Industrial Strategy, the ten-year NHS Plan and Get Britain Working plan, we need the right corporate approach; our convening role is more vital than ever. The Mayor and Combined Authority will be central to change, advancing regional priorities, and unlocking new opportunities for our communities.

Under the Bill, the Mayor’s key areas of competence will be:

• transport and local infrastructure
• skills and employment support
• housing and strategic planning
• economic development and regeneration
• the environment and climate change
• health, well-being and public service reform
• public safety.

We are ready to shape our future on our own terms. At the heart of our response is the region’s new Local Growth Plan.

This Corporate Plan is the map for that journey.

Our region is a pillar of the UK economy. We are a net contributor to the Exchequer and home to the most intense Science and Technology cluster in the world. With a GVA of £31.4 billion, we are proud to be a prime location for global inward investment, with two of the fastest growing cities in the UK in Cambridge and Peterborough.

Our economy is focused on knowledge intensive industries with nearly 28% of our GVA driven by innovation sectors. This is backed by our strategic location, at the heart of two major innovation and growth corridors. The Ox-Cam Growth corridor places huge emphasis on the symbiotic relationship between the academic powerhouses of the UK, driving forward innovation from our counties’ historic institutions. The Innovation Corridor connects the London’s talent base and global finance markets to our unique innovation economy. This golden triangle is a powerful cluster of innovation, academia and economic activity.

The Combined Authority has worked with Government to identify six high-growth priority sectors with strong potential through to 2050.

• Life Sciences
• Advanced Manufacturing & Materials
• Digital Technologies
• Defence
• Agri-Food & Tech
• Energy and Clean Tech

These six priority sectors are central to growing our economy and meeting the Mayoral target of tripling the economy.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has established strong partnerships. Together with our Constituent Councils, we use the powers and funding devolved from Government to make important decisions for our region.

Our partnership approach goes beyond local government and beyond our local borders. We also collaborate with businesses, schools, colleges, universities, health services, emergency services, and community organisations. These relationships help us to deliver better solutions.

Through this collaborative way of working, we act across all six of our strategic objectives: Growth, Connectivity, Jobs, Homes, Resilience, and Performance. Together, we are delivering on shared ambitions for the region.

We aim to have the fastest growing regional economy outside London. This Corporate Plan will allow us to boost Growth, increase Connectivity, get people into Jobs, deliver Homes, strengthen local Resilience and improve our Performance.

At the heart of this strategy lies our Local Growth Plan, which will build on our region’s unique strengths and opportunities to drive the sectors that will lead growth, address key business priorities, and provide a comprehensive framework to unlock investment.

Our region’s economy has already grown by nearly £8.7 billion since the Combined Authority was established in 2017, with 28,000 more residents in employment. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is internationally significant, boasting a GVA of over £31 billion. We will deliver projects that accelerate Growth and want our GVA to triple by 2050.

If this success is to continue, increasing transport connectivity is vital. We will pursue better roads, faster trains, new stations and stops, innovation in connectivity, and integrated ticketing across public transport will boost growth and unlock development and jobs.

Building on our success in improving access to jobs and skills, every course we offer will help residents secure employment or better-paid, higher-skilled roles. Our local Get Britain Working Plan will address labour market challenges, targeting an 80% employment rate. Local employers will be key to creating training, apprenticeship and internship opportunities in high-growth sectors.

Our region’s rich heritage, environment and history are part of why people want to live here. We will embrace and preserve all that’s best about our past, while looking to the future. We need more new Homes and to ensure that new neighbourhoods are well-designed, forming places and communities where people want to live.

Sustained growth requires Resilience. We will work with partners to ensure our region has a dependable supply of electricity and water, while protecting residents from local risks and adverse events. This includes securing investment in infrastructure and mitigating the impact of climate change.

To deliver, the Combined Authority must continue to improve its Performance. This means giving staff what they need to make things happen. If the organisation is going to boost regional growth, it must be appropriately resourced, so we will make the case to Government that we need sustainable funding.

We start with many advantages. Our region is a net contributor to the exchequer and is home to the most intense science and technology cluster in the world. From discovering the double-helix structure of DNA and developing IVF to writing the rules of football, we have made history happen.

However, there are challenges that continue to hold us back. It is only by working together that we will grow the economy and expand opportunities to improve the lives of our current and future residents.

This Corporate Plan recognises the links between Growth, Connectivity, Jobs, Homes, Resilience and Performance and identifies action across all six objectives to deliver our ambitions. With the support of the Local Growth Plan, we know the opportunities for long-term prosperity. Now, we need to deliver.

We need to create the conditions for growth through infrastructure-led development. Our region is internationally significant and all plans and policies must support our businesses. By 2050, we should triple our regional GVA while spreading growth to all our towns and rural areas. We will:

• Deliver the Local Growth Plan by maximising opportunities in our priority sectors – Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing & Materials, Digital Technologies, Defence, Agri-Food Tech, Energy & Clean Tech.
• Promote and secure investment for our Local Growth Plan Opportunity zones – Fens Growth Triangle, Peterborough Fast Growth City, North Hunts Growth Cluster, Global City Cambridge.
• Work with the Cambridge Growth Company and partners in the Oxford-Cambridge and Innovation Corridors to maximise the economic potential of Cambridge and the wider region
• Support the redevelopment of Peterborough, including the city centre, the station quarter and plans for sports facilities and a new community stadium. We will also develop the business case for a research and skills centre.
• Improve our heritage and tourism offer, while supporting high streets and local markets, promoting local pride, and improving the attractiveness of our town and city centres, including free parking initiatives.
• Deliver the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and Rural England Prosperity Fund projects to direct government funding to local projects.

We need to increase connectivity through better roads, faster trains, new stations and stops, and more modes of transport, like light rail. Public transport should be affordable, reliable and frequent, with integrated, multi-mode ticketing. Better transport links will connect more people to employment, leisure, essential services and training to unlock opportunity and drive growth. We will:

• Review the bus network and proposals for franchising to deliver sustainable routes across the region.
• Implement a permanent Tiger Pass scheme and explore integrated, flexible, multi-mode tickets.
• Push for enhancements to Ely Junction and use new rail powers for mayors to get faster, more frequent services and new stations.
• Explore options for a light rail network for Greater Cambridge.
• Seek increased funding for the region’s roads and develop business cases to improve the A47, A10 and A141, while identifying a key route network.
• Focus investment in active travel on high-impact schemes.
• Improve 4G and 5G data signal coverage, tackling issues in rural communities.

We need to help more people into work. By matching our skills funding to the roles that local employers need to fill, with more direct placements, we can get better outcomes. Our goal is to get adults a job or a better job, taking advantage of our growth sectors. We will:

• Provide leadership by working with employers and training providers to join up health, skills, and employment support.
• Deliver the Connect to Work programme and an extended all-age Careers Service with employers.
• Work with employers to offer more paid internships and direct placements in high-growth sectors.
• Enhance support programmes for 16–21-year-olds not in education, employment or training (NEET).
• Deliver the Youth Guarantee, a regional Careers Hub and a bespoke Youth Employment Hub in Peterborough.
• Work directly with employers to shape and promote the Adult Skills Fund, Skills Bootcamps, Free Courses for Jobs, Sector Work Academy Programmes (SWAPs) and the Local Skills Improvement Plan.
• Enhance skills infrastructure through Skills Capital projects, such as upgrading training facilities, in partnership with employers.
• Safeguard access to English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses as a separate component of adult education, supporting employers’ workforce needs.
• Commission an independent review of adult vocational training, ensuring courses align with high-demand sectors and lead to placements, jobs and better employment outcomes.

We need to build more housing. This means homes and neighbourhoods where people want to live, not just adding numbers. Growth must also work for existing residents, through an infrastructure-led approach, good design, community participation and more choice and opportunities for renters. We will:

• Develop and adopt a Spatial Development Strategy to shape growth, future planning policies and support delivery of Local Growth Plan priorities.
• Explore new opportunities, such as Mayoral Development Corporations and the Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy
• Use our Strategic Place Partnership with Homes England to maximise housing delivery and regeneration, prioritising new housing around railway stations and other key sites.
• Ensure development is enabled and led by infrastructure.
• Advocate design principles that create attractive, popular homes and communities and promote health and wellbeing.
• Give people more influence over development in their area, while encouraging forms of housing tenure that give renters more affordable options and a chance to own.
• Enable action to make tall buildings safe by getting improper cladding replaced or removed.

Resilience is our ability to address strategic risks for our region’s environment, infrastructure, water management and energy supply. This includes protecting farmland and reducing the impacts of climate change. It means ensuring our region is prepared for extreme weather, such as droughts, heatwaves and flooding, while strengthening local emergency planning. We will:

• Develop a clear plan to improve resilience across the region, drawing on the previous climate action plan.
• Deliver the Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) to enhance biodiversity and boost natural defences.
• Push for delivery of the Fens Reservoir, to tackle water scarcity and unlock growth and leisure opportunities.
• Promote networks of small-scale reservoirs on farmland to deliver additional water supply.
• Support flood prevention efforts including improving the capacity of local pumping stations
• Champion ongoing work on peat-based soils
• Explore how new strategic planning policies can protect prime farmland from use as solar farms.
• Work with the National Energy System Operator, using Local Area Energy Plans to strengthen energy supply.
• Prepare for the transfer of Police and Fire responsibilities to the mayoralty.
• Build a stronger relationship with the Local Resilience Forum to improve emergency preparedness.

Our staff matter and must be equipped to make things happen. We will build the internal skills and capacity needed to do things well – and to move at pace. We will work with our constituent councils and use consultants only where they add real value ensuring we deliver the best outcomes for our residents.  We will:

• Ensure the authority achieves Established Mayoral Strategic Authority status, with an Integrated Settlement, as soon as possible.
• Prepare for the powers and responsibilities outlined in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.
• Develop a robust financial plan to support the delivery of our priorities, while presenting a unified case to government for long-term, sustainable funding and fiscal powers.
• Build and maintain a flexible, high-performing workforce by attracting and retaining talent from all sectors
• Review our governance and decision-making arrangements, including committee structures, to improve efficiency and effectiveness of decision-making
• Advocate for the region’s fair share of government funding.
• Reduce our reliance on consultants by building internal capacity and expertise, engaging consultants for specific technical advice.  
• Refresh our website and information-sharing to increase our transparency and engagement.