At the Combined Authority, our mission is to make life better, healthier, and fairer for all members of our communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. We want to unlock the future of our area by driving good growth, protecting our environment, and creating opportunities for all. We want to close the gap in healthy life expectancy and salaries, increase access to employment and education, and boost innovation. Only by doing this can we ensure a strong and sustainable future.
Our approach to driving sustainable good growth
Our approach to unlocking the futures of our communities is to invest in the things that make life better, healthier and fairer for all guided by our key principles including climate and nature, health and skills, innovation, and infrastructure. We will do this in a way that is guided by the values of compassion, cooperation and community, with the aim of doubling GVA (our economy) across the region.
All our plans will seek to achieve sustainable good growth using our ‘Six Keys’ to improve lives and double the economy of the region.
Climate and Nature
Restore the natural capital across our region and address the impact of climate change on the special vulnerabilities that affect us.
Our ambition is to ensure that growth is environmentally sustainable and does not exhaust the resources our children will need for the future.
We will aim to bring back nature that has been lost to our region, protect against the impact of climate change, and maximise the opportunities presented by the green economy to make life better, fairer, and healthier for all. The most vulnerable areas, residents, and communities will be supported to ensure they benefit from the opportunities of this transition.
Some of our current projects include the ordering of 30 zero emission (ZEBRA) buses for Cambridge and our support for the Doubling Nature vision.
Health and Skills
Build the health and skills of our population to ensure that people in our region are healthy and able to pursue the jobs and lives they want
Our ambition is to ensure that everyone in the region has the same opportunity to live healthy lives and that rising prosperity makes life better, fairer, and healthier for all.
Life chances are unequal across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, with a more than 10-year gap in life expectancy between the areas of most and least deprivation. To address this, we must tackle the root causes of poor health including education and income as well as improving the physical environment which has a huge impact on wellbeing. Our shared vision is for a successful, globally competitive economy offering high-skilled, well-paid, good quality jobs, delivering increased productivity and prosperity to support strong, sustainable, and healthy communities. This is enabled by an inclusive, world-class local skills system.
Some of our current projects include those that benefit from our adult education budget such as the Multiply Programme, and our funding for a new programme to provide HGV training in response to well-publicised shortages of drivers.
Innovation
Build on our reputation for new thinking, new technology and new ideas.
Our ambition is to continue to create opportunities for new thinking, new technology and new ideas that will improve quality of life, and to build on the reputation of our district as a global leader in innovative growth. This will in turn attract more businesses to our area, bringing greater job opportunities and further investment.
Some of our current projects include those supported by Growth Works, which saw over 1,000 jobs and apprenticeships created and 257 learning outcomes delivered in 2021.
Reducing Inequalities
Invest in the community and build social capital to close the gaps in life expectancy and people’s income between different parts of our region.
There are big gaps in life expectancy, income, and education between different parts of our region, which must be addressed. Our ambition is to empower communities and invest in areas of deprivation to help narrow those gaps. Our investments will help boost education and skills training in areas where it is needed, improve transport links, support community housing projects and invest in market town renovation.
Some of our current projects include ARU Peterborough, the opening of this new university we estimate will bring 5,600 higher value jobs in Peterborough, generating additional growth (GVA) of £308m over ten years, and our Market Towns Masterplan, with the aim of bringing jobs, infrastructure and growth.
Infrastructure
Build public transport networks, improve digital connectivity and deliver energy and water system infrastructure that will improve job and life prospects.
Currently, our public transport system is inadequate in parts of the region, leading to avoidable pressure on the roads and poor air quality. We must ensure we have a robust public transport network that allows people to travel freely for work opportunities and where it is needed, we are updating roads to reduce congestion.
Some of our current projects include the A141 St Ives Improvement Scheme and the recently opened King’s Dyke Bridge and Soham Station.
Finance and Systems
Ensure that the way we spend our money and how our decisions are taken are as cost effective and transparent as they can be.
Growth is meaningless if it’s not sustainable: it is only because we invest in the future that we can look forward to sustainable growth. We will double the size of the economy while ensuring good growth through sustainable investments, ensuring that rising prosperity makes life better, healthier and fair for all, without exhausting the resources our children will need for the future.