Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council to speak at 'Science Cities' Cambridge

Cllr Bridget Smith, Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council

Future Cities Forum is delighted to welcome back the Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, Cllr Bridget Smith, to its 'Science Cities' event at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in September.

Bridget is responsible for the strategic leadership of the Council. She is the Council’s representative on the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and also the OxCam Pan Regional Partnership.

The new UK government to be elected this Thursday will have to look hard at how to solve the housing crisis across the country but also in their ambition to increase housing across 'Silicon Fen', where water shortages are highlighted as a significant barrier to expanding the number of homes in Cambridgeshire.

Bridget joined our Cambridge 'Science Cities' forum in 2021 to describe her vision for housing in South Cambridgeshire and beyond. She spoke of the newly published Greater Cambridge Local Plan which was shortly to be open for community consultation and comment from the start of November:

'I think its a good plan as it is predicated on environment and affordability. If we get the place-making right we are dealing with both of these, where people can access their education and healthcare, live and work in one place, and this will start making the car redundant .

'Waterbeach, for instance, would be better if it was car free, but with good public transport we can reduce the reliance on cars. On housing I am not talking just about people on low incomes but also those on higher incomes who can't afford to live here.

'Good place making helps with cost of living, while building types of houses with the highest energy efficient standards also helps to reduce cost of living. I am advocating strongly for all housing across the (Oxford to Cambridge) Arc to be built to those exacting standards.'