Housing and infrastructure needs for science cities

The research meeting on housing and infrastructure needs in the UK was held on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus at the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute next to the Royal Papworth Hospital.

Science campus owners and healthcare leaders say the UK government needs to take action over policy reforms for private collaboration and investment in public infrastructure, to ensure future economic growth and prevent the loss of medical technology talent  to international competition.

Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the Infrastructure & Projects Authority, global surgical robotics company, CMR Surgical, Homes England, the Water Scarcity Group and Cambridge City Council - among others - have been discussing the UK’s infrastructure needs to attract and retain the best talent at a research meeting organised by FUTURE CITIES FORUM and hosted by the Cambridge Biomedical Campus ('CBC Ltd').

Science cities such as Cambridge are growing at a fast rate and campus owners are trying to expand their facilities against water shortages and planning constraints.

Nick Kirby, Managing Director at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC Ltd) told the forum: ‘Much of what will make the CBC more successful, along with many other places in the UK, is infrastructure in a very wide sense including social, schools, hospitals, affordable housing as well as water and utilities. We need some policy reforms that allow for more private collaboration and investment in public infrastructure. This will help future growth be more inclusive. There’s lots going on here with R&D improving patient outcomes but we are not where we want to be from an infrastructure point of view.’

The Infrastructure & Project Authority’s Project Director in the Housing and Delivery Team Karl FitzGerald put forward the idea of ‘mission-based government’ as a solution to aid  disconnected infrastructure issues across city regions: ‘I want to build on the need for optimism, as there are clouds on the budget horizon. I am taken by the concept of mission-based government - something which is about collaboration. I think it is a powerful idea. Mission-based government is a way of joining things up. If you make an investment decision, it’s not just for a single purpose. Government departments don’t get used to talking about things together. But it’s the only way we are to crack things – healthy places, healthy spaces and healthy institutions working together which is very positive. It can be done but it will take a culture change at the top. We need to insist that government departments talk to each other.’

While Mark Slack, Chief Medical Officer of global surgical robotics company, CMR Surgical said: ‘My message to the new government is engage. Find out what the problems are, see where we are losing our tech, and do something about it. In India they have a ‘Made in India’ programme, and you struggle to sell against that. There are lots of companies who struggle with lack of support in the UK. The Cambridge cluster is amazing, but if we don’t do something then we will haemorrhage talent and successful companies.

‘We raised a billion dollars, and we have done over 1,000 procedures. When I was looking for a factory I went to Norway. They showed me the entire package with housing and amenities, but I have just spent three months here trying to find housing for two new employees from the US near to schools. Cambridge UK has more Nobel prizes than  anywhere else in the world apart from the USA. We have talent here. I employ 250 PhDs. But here is no support from government – structurally, financially, emotionally. Do we get preferential land rights? No. After Brexit, the UK then adopted the EU regulatory structure for science. Last year 50% of MedTech innovations left Europe for the USA. Talent and ability are being squandered.’

The IPA’s Karl FitzGerald reminded the forum that ‘joined up housing and infrastructure it is still a challenge. With new towns we are facing an environment that the original new towns did not have. They did not have the regulated utilities ecosystem that we have today. When Milton Keynes was built (nationalised) utilities could be delivered straight away – for Milton Keynes - by the development corporation. The Oxford to Cambridge Arc has been killed off as a concept and is struggling to come back. It hangs on East West Rail.

‘The energy story at a national level is a major conundrum. With the need for decarbonise grid, the whole infrastructure spine of the National Grid, covering transmission as well as generation, needs upgrading. Power and water are intrinsically linked because you need power to purify. Data centres bring them together and are heavy in their demand. Heat networks are extremely difficult to make work locally. 

'You want to get the confluence of demand and production in the right place at the right time, otherwise you have surplus heat in a location that you do not know what to do with. The spatial planning is crucial, as recommended by the NIC. That has not gone away. Each component needs to talk to the other, and needs to be resolved spatially and temporally, at every scale – national, regional and local.’

Chair of Homes England and Chair of the Cambridge Delivery Group, Peter Freeman explained: ‘Cambridge is full of Nobel prize winners and ‘Unicorns’, but also is full of ‘can-do’ politicians and officers. It is more than able to take the growth but what the Cambridge Delivery Group and the government has to do is to ensure funding for the infrastructure. If we don’t solve water, transport and affordable challenges then we have no right to ask the Cambridge region to take the (housing) growth.

‘Although insulting to Cambridge to say that it is the first of the new towns, all of the policies we needed to make the new towns work with land assembly and land value capture are all applicable  to Cambridge. If we can crack in Cambridge the way to assemble land, and to ensure development is infrastructure-led with schools and playgrounds and GP surgeries, we will have set with the Treasury a way of getting the money back.’

While Dr Paul Leinster, CBE, Chair of the Water Scarcity Group commented:

‘We need to protect and improve the environment. We are damaging the chalk streams and aquifers. Extraction from these has to reduce. Behavioural change is needed. New supply options are being looked at with the new Fens reservoir and the transfer from Grafham Water.

‘How do we move the water around? One of the big questions is how much water is being used in commercial developments, and how do you reduce that? If we are flushing lavatories with drinking water, are we really acting sustainably? Water is too cheap, so people are making economic decisions on the use of water. Are data centres going to have single-path use of water? What type of water is being used for what use? For data centres, are there alternative cooling systems? There should be rising tariffs for water, and differentiated tariffs for what is used for public health and what is used for convenience. How can we have single conversations about water resources and about power? You need to think about regional solutions.'

On the provision for new science buildings to serve a wide range of needs, Stephen Kelly, Joint Head of Planning and Economy at Cambridge City Council and Greater Cambridge Shared Planning commented:

‘We have just published a report on market needs for dry and wet labs in the Greater Cambridge area but there is a proportionate issue, since we know that 50% of the space needs to be let to smaller users...but the government has liberalised the planning system to such an extent so that we can’t limit the amount of space given to specific sectors. We are looking to intervene. There are viability issues on providing space for smaller, scale-up companies.’ The contributors to the research meeting at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus included:

The forum addressed the themes of how and whether the UK can continue to compete as a ‘science super-power’ on the world stage, and the future for economic and also housing development with sustainable infrastructure supporting our ‘science cities’ 

Those contributing to our panel discussions were: Peter Freeman, Chair of Homes England and Chair of The Cambridge Delivery Group, Karl Fitzgerald, Project Director - Housing and Regeneration, Infrastructure & Projects Authority, Cllr Bridget Smith, Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council , Dr Paul Leinster, CBE, Chair of the Water Scarcity Group / Professor of Environmental Assessment, Cranfield University, 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 and Tom Pike, Deputy Chief Executive, Stevenage District Council. The planning workshop on the theme 'How do we join up the disparate parts of the Cambridge cluster?' was facilitated by Gary Clark, Principal  |  Regional Leader of Science + Technology, HOK

The Heart and Lung Institute is a joint venture between Cambridge University and Royal Papworth Hospital and represents a major expansion of cardiovascular and respiratory research capacity.

Images below: Matt Tulley of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust speaking on the second panel discussion at the CBC, and below that Peter Freeman of Homes England talks to Heather Fearfield on the first panel discussion