'Global class science Cities' - Cambridge report part two

Above: the opening panel discussion at Future Cities Forum's 'Global science cities' - held at the Heart and Lung Research Institute on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus

In our second report from our 'Global science cities' forum hosted by the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, we discussed how the UK's leading health and life sciences clusters are tackling health inequalities, why there is a shortage of space for scale-up businesses in Cambridge, how 'nature deficit' might be tackled and why new development needs to 'co-designed' with community consultation.

This report features the contributions from Peter Freeman, Chair of Homes England and Chair of The Cambridge Delivery Group, Cllr Bridget Smith, Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council , Stephen Kelly, Joint Director of Planning and Economic Development, Greater Cambridge Shared Planning, Alister Kratt, Director of LDA Design / Advisor to National Infrastructure Commission, Margarethe Theseira, Head of Consulting, Buro Happold / Professor, Development Planning at University College London, Nick Kirby, Managing Director of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Joseph Casey, Director, Partnerships and Operations | King's Health Partners, Matthew Tulley, Head of Redevelopment, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Gareth Roberts, Head of Development – Science & Technology, British Land, Mark Slack, Chief Medical Officer, CMR Surgical, Tom Pike, Deputy Chief Executive, Stevenage District Council and Iain Keys, Partner and Head of Cambridge at Knight Frank.

Leader of South Cambridgeshire Council, Cllr Bridget Smith said:

'It was encouraging to hear directly from the Minister for Housing, Matthew Pennycook - on his recent visit to Cambridge - that we should listen to the Environment Agency that is blocking housing development. Biodiversity is very important. National tree canopy cover averages at 10% and it is only 7% in Cambridgeshire. We have a serious nature deficit here. Our chalk streams have run dry, the fish have died. We have to get the message across to people that we are talking to government about making this a better place to live in. When people are talking to companies across the world saying the city region is a great place to locate to, it has to be a place that works for everybody. People care about the environment and if Covid-19 taught us anything it was that the people who did best were those with access to fresh air and green spaces. If we don't factor in exemplary place-making then this place will fail, as others will do it better. We have a wonderful opportunity to be an international leader in sustainable growth, with the government's backing.'

Head of Consulting at global engineering firm Buro Happold, Margarethe Theseira added:

'Community engagement often does not work. It works much better if it co-designed with communities. Buro Happold has developed an approach with the University of Manchester called 'Flourish Index' where communities are telling us what they need. We don't just listen but we watch as well, so sensors are put all over the place telling us about water use, how spaces are used and so on. Then we work with the community using the evidence base. Very often there are issues where there is congestion, and lack of access to a new (science) development. It is better (for the community) to know what the opportunity is. The public and private sectors and community groups have to be brought together to resolve tensions before a planning point is reached.'

Simon Payne of Lambsquay Consulting of Cambridge asked how confident the panel was about co-ordinating major infrastructure before the development of a new garden community commenced. Cllr Bridget Smith responded:

'We were given a half billion pounds City Deal some years back to address the infrastructure deficit, and we built Cambourne, a successful community but it is utterly car reliant. There has to be a massive change in the approach to joined-up infrastructure planning. It's not just about transport, it's about the GP surgeries and the schools and the retail provision.'

Alister Kratt, Director at LDA Design and a design panel member at the National Infrastructure Commission, spoke about involving communities on infrastructure development and the impacts on the environment:

'There is a need for joined-up outcomes and these need to work together in the chain of sequencing. East West Railway (linking Oxford and Cambridge via Bedford and Milton Keynes) will be delivered under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime and it is front-loaded in terms of community consultation but there is still important education to be done. The late 20's generation thinks differently and has an increased understanding about the importance of the environment. How do communities engage with change? We must give benefit to communities if they engage. If we are managing change, place-planning must be central. Communities must have an appropriate level of understanding of what change means. As part of the democratic process it is really important that voices are heard. Communities need to understand. I think the term 'communities benefits package' is problematic. We have to work in a coherent way.'

Peter Freeman, Chair of Homes England, responded to questions about the new housing minister's visit to Cambridge and the pressure to build significant numbers of new homes:

'He (Matthew Pennycook) has shadowed the role for three years and wants the job. He came to Cambridge not so much to preach and promise but to take the temperature. The message of the last government was to build here and that has not changed.'

Peter was asked whether 'building beautiful' be sacrificed in the drive for new housing?

He responded:

'Some of the things done in Cambridge over the last ten years such as Great Knighton are a very attractive way of achieving higher density in a gradual fashion without going as high as the illustrations in 'Create Streets'. I think because of the work of the Cambridge Design Review Panel, Cambridge has achieved better design in housing than the rest of the country . There is the need and opportunity, depending on location, over the next 25 to 30 years to build every type of housing in Cambridge, and it should be built to a higher quality than before.

Joint Director of Planning and Economic Growth at the Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service Stephen Kelly added his comments on the question of why 'sustainability' measures are already priced into projects:

'Both councils - the city council and South Cambridgeshire - have very strong commitments to sustainability in council house building. What we would say is that the importance of climate change enhancement and biodiversity is paramount to our developments, and if during conversations with government we unravel those expectations we will lose our community support. The workforce of the future is as demanding about sustainability requirements as any council.'

'We are conscious of how far affordability has moved away from most people in Cambridge. It is really important that the planning authority and those doing the place-making understand this and that new housing is inclusive and that people must see there are opportunities to come here. This is fundamental to our net zero ambitions because the most important thing we can do is stop people commuting.

'Understanding the demographic make-up of our future population is essential. Engagement for us with the market over housing typologies is very important, and while developers may produce 3-bed houses priced at £800,00 this will not keep most families in Cambridge. Also many young people do not think they should be living in flats, and understanding what the incentives are and might be (to live in apartments) is something we want to share with Peter's team at Homes England, while the government wants to accelerate new housing. There is a cost to not doing this. This is globally significant location in the UK, and if (international) companies locating to Cambridge cannot find accommodation for their staff, they will simply go elsewhere.'

Above: second panel discussion at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus with - from left - Matthew Tulley, Head of Redevelopment, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Gareth Roberts, Head of Development – Science & Technology, British Land, Joseph Casey, Director, Partnerships and Operations | King's Health Partners, Heather Fearfield, Co-founder of Future Cities Forum, Nick Kirby, Managing Director of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Mark Slack, Chief Medical Officer, CMR Surgical, and Tom Pike, Deputy Chief Executive, Stevenage District Council

SCIENCE CITIES and HEALTH INEQUALITIES

Managing Director of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus ('CBC'), Nick Kirby, described the vision for the CBC:

'If we are to continue to find the next discovery, and the next disease cure, this is not going to be happening by fortune. This will happen by bringing these sorts of organisations together that surround us on the campus - AstraZeneca, AbCam, the Laboratory of Molecular Biology - and translating the discoveries for our NHS partners. The NHS needs to be geared to work more closely with life sciences. If you look across the way to the Royal Papworth, this is happening - with the first in-clinical trials. Having spent a year in this role, there is a real sense of agency over the things we can unlock here on the Biomedical Campus and across wider Cambridge, which will have only a very marginal call on the Treasury, so we should be bringing forward solutions that help the UK.'

Deputy Chief Executive Tom Pike of Stevenage Borough Council was asked about the town's manufacturing success stories and why these have not been replicated elsewhere in the UK and he said:

'In a place like Stevenage there is land and hunger (for success). In the last two years we have committed two million square feet of space for life sciences development.

'To give you an example we had a approach from a UK company that was spun-out from the UCL Cancer Institute called Autolus Therapeutics that needed space quickly as they built up to a share registration in the USA. The company had the option of taking land in Maryland or in the UK. We saw it as our job to ensure they stayed in the UK as it would mean 400 jobs in Stevenage, as one of the first start ups coming through our location. We sold land in the centre of the town which was a car park. We had a choice to help provide it or lose the opportunity. We accelerated the planning permission for the manufacturing space.

'The company secured consent for planning in three months. They then completed construction on the modular buildings in 17 months, and this is the sort of speed that companies want to see from local authorities. GSK also sold land to UBS Asset Management for development and that firm wanted to see certainty to help them attract tenants, so we accelerated the planning process to help, and we resourced up our teams and also used design panels and more.'

Autolus Therapeutics listed its shares with a successful IPO (Initial Public Offering) on NASDAQ in 2018, raising $160 million. It raised an additional $340 million in 2024.

Chief Medical Officer at global medical robotics company CMR Surgical Mark Slack then explained why the company set up a manufacturing base in Ely, twenty miles distant from the HQ in Cambridge.

'I wanted to stay in the area. For the factory, Cambridge was too expensive, so we chose Ely. It is easy from there to get to Huntingdon and Peterborough. When looking at the Cambridge cluster, it is important to consider the greater ecosystem of these cities and towns along with Stevenage so there is space, proximity to the wider population and affordability for staff'.

Joseph Casey, Head of Partnerships and Operations at King's Health Partners which brings together three major NHS hospital trusts with the research, health education and teaching capabilities of King's College London, said:

'My reflection on today is that we make health and life sciences incredibly complicated as we don't know one another, don't understand each other and don't talk together and we don't think together. The innovation district concept embodied by SC1 London Life Sciences District, which includes two local authority partners and land owners - along with the three hospital trusts and Guy's and St Thomas Charity in Lambeth and Southwark is about how we improve health, and how we improve wealth by working together. What really matters is how well we collaborate to resolve major health issues and challenges. Planning applications for major new buildings which might have taken a long time, up to 15 years, have been done together at much greater pace.'

When asked about the importance of data and bioinformatics, and the pressing issue of why only 60% of the 35,000 genomics tests carried out in a month had been on time (as cited by Lord Darzi in his 2024 report on the NHS), Joseph responded:

'We have amazing medical science capabilities in the UK , and bioinformatics is one of those opportunities that we have to improve human health across the breadth and depth of diverse populations. It allows us to do more faster and more cheaply and critically it's a team discipline and at King's College London it draws together public policy, law, ethics and social care as well as medical science.'

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Head of Regeneration at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Matthew Tulley, responded to the Lord Darzi assertion that health is not about 'shiny new science buildings' but inequalities over housing and life expectancies - and particularly a huge health inequality in the City of Westminster:

'Westminster has one of the greatest health disparities in the UK for life expectancy, when you compare a male living in the north of the borough with another living in Belgravia. We have been doing a lot of work with Westminster City Council to address these issues. Often the approach to healthcare in hospitals is not joined up with housing conditions and wider social care. That is what makes a forum like this, with a wide group of people and disciplines, so interesting.'

When asked about the need for the retrofit of historic hospital buildings, Matt responded:

'The state of some of the buildings at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington is shameful and the vast majority of the estate needs to be rebuilt and we should not expect staff to have to cope with those conditions. Part of the site has some (beautiful) listed buildings and these might have different uses in future - as hotels and offices for instance. We have to attract, train and retain talent in our hospitals, and to make them a great place to work. One of the positive things though is that St Mary's Paddington is incredibly well-connected, so people can get there easily. Paddington Basin is surrounded by modern developments - such as British Land's Paddington Central campus - and is packed on a sunny day with people from all sorts of organisations. One of the things we have set out to do by creating Paddington Life Sciences is to connect these organisations and people. However it is very difficult to get investment - pension funds want to invest but there is no mechanism to allow them to do so.'

Partner and Head of Cambridge at real estate consultancy Knight Frank, Iain Keys, put a question to the panel:

'The UK is really good at producing start-ups and spin-outs in the science sector but we don't build or create enough space for them. Developers have invested in space for life sciences but it is lacking for early stage, and scale-up companies, and especially for medical technology businesses. Why not more flexible space for these type of business? Cambridge is more than life sciences. We have to embrace that and link the ecosystem to Ely and other towns.'

The Head of Development, Science and Technology, Gareth Roberts at property owner, investor and developer British Land commented:

'As an owner and developer we are confident about the macro trends in the market and economy, as the UK has an ageing population, and continuing healthcare issues but now we are looking at when the step-change will kick in. The thing that is lagging is the occupational side.'

'There have been challenges over the last two years with higher interest rates and values have fallen, and also around the supply chain with skills shortages and capacity in construction, but I am optimistic.'

British Land is currently developing the Optic, a new office and lab space on the Peterhouse Technology Park, Cambridge with design work from Scott Brownrigg, and is redeveloping the 1970s Euston Tower building in London to create a 'world leading science, technology and innovation building' helped by Danish architecture practice 3XN.

Above: CGI from 3XN Architects of main entrance to the proposed re-modelled Euston Tower in London (Courtesy British Land and 3XN)