The Growth Corridor – a road to success

One of the greatest opportunities in the world. A rival to the West Coast of America. An absolute beacon for research, development and investment. Welcome to the growth corridor, the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge arc, the slice of the UK that is earmarked to double in growth by 2050 and become one of the country’s most valuable assets. How it will get there, the opportunities to be grabbed along the way and the barriers to delivery that will need to be torn down were all up for discussion at EG’s packed Growth Corridor event. Landlords, developers, investors, advisers and occupiers put forward a number of areas that need to be addressed for the arc to full reach its potential. Infrastructure and congestion issues True growth cannot happen if people cannot easily get to, from and around the arc, said experts at the event. Congestion levels in Cambridge and Oxford are crippling the area and if there is no solution to that then linking the arc will be futile. “The pressure on the infrastructure at either end of the arc is extremely pressing,” said Matthew Bullock, founder of Cambridge Ahead and Master of St Edmunds College. “There is no point having a high-speed corridor to two completely blocked centres at either end.” Bullock said serious consideration was needed when developing in and around the arc to ensure that Cambridge did not become more congested. A focus on road was labelled by some as a 20th-century solution to a 21st-century problem, with calls for those in power to think about public transport, autonomous vehicles and other solutions. Collaboration Pete Gladwell, head of public sector partnerships at Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets, said a simple structure with proper and true collaboration was needed if the opportunities around the arc were to be seized. “This needs a higher level of ambition and coordination than we as a country have typically employed,” he said. “This is a huge national opportunity and those of us who care need to work together to deliver it.” Iain Gilbey, partner and head of planning and environmental law at Pinsent Masons, agreed. However, he said that while all interested parties needed to come together in a combined effort, there needed to be a top-down approach in terms of policy and assessment or the arc would suffer “death by 1,000 cuts” with a series of challenges along the way. “There is a difference between having a vision and making things happen,” said Gilbey. “With 22 local authorities, all of which will have different objectives, trying to find common ground will be a challenge. The nitty gritty is the thing that gets in the way of delivery. We need a national policy statement that will have weight in the decision-making processes.” Identifying the opportunities But making things happen in the corridor cannot happen without investment. And while finding capital is not difficult, selling and identifying a range of current and future opportunities is. “Capital is not the issue,” said Naisha Polaine, head of UK capital projects at the Department for International Trade. “The issue is about opportunity. I struggle to tell the investors where the opportunities are in the arc. We need to know where the near-term opportunities are and we need to know what the ‘greater than the sum of its parts’ opportunities are going to be.” Poliane said the DIT was working on a plan, however. “We are working on a strategy to identify the low-hanging fruit where businesses and developers might be looking for capital to deliver them,” she said. “We need to be able to lay out your shop front. We need to be able to say ‘this is what is happening now and if you do X, Y and Z, this is what will come’.” Rob Hopwood, partner in the planning department at Bidwells, agreed that more needed to be done to outline the real opportunities that the arc was delivering – not just to international investors, but to local stakeholders too. “People don’t understand the concept of what the corridor means because there is no branding,” said Hopwood. “It is not just the road and the rail, it is the placemaking, it is the GDP, and that is what landowners need to understand.” Housing Like all UK development projects, delivery of housing to deal not just with current demand but future growth is one of the biggest opportunities (and challenges) within the growth corridor. Some 1m new homes will be needed in the region over the next 30 years, which will mean providing 170,000 acres of land to build on. But   the land is not being released fast enough to be able to deliver the level of housing promised, said Barratt Homes group land director Phillip Barnes. “The worry is that some perfectly good sites in the heart of the corridor are not being released while people think about the big picture,” he said. “We need the quick wins to take advantage of growth today.” “Getting to the number of homes needed is going to take transformational thinking,” added Sarah Greenwood, head of strategic growth at Homes England. “We have got to engage with local partners. There are local authorities that are doing great things. The challenge is whether homes are in the right places and if they aren’t, how we change that.” Greenwood said the narrative on housing needed to be changed from being all about the numbers to what it meant for economic growth. That belief was mirrored by a number of experts who said the focus for the arc should be on business, not housing. Attracting staff is one of the biggest challenges for businesses and how they jump that hurdle will dictate housing need and location. Delivering for occupiers The corridor’s economy would grow to £400bn if it continues expanding at the pace of recent years, so focusing on the wants and needs of occupiers will be key in delivering further growth and development across the arc. Research from Bidwells reveals that demand for office and lab space along the arc will reach 15-20m sq ft by 2050, requiring some 1,300 acres of land to be released. Research director Sue Foxley said that while local plans had allocated close to 5,000 acres for employment land, what needed to be be understood was whether it was in the correction locations. According to Bidwells’ research the top five location preferences for major R&D businesses were; A city district location Dedicated premises close to a university or research institution Dedicated premises in a university or research institution Hot desk space in a major university or research institution shared with researchers or other R&D businesses Out-of-town science park based around relevant specialist research organisations. “All the expansion coming forward is an exciting opportunity for the corridor but the ability to capture that growth is not guaranteed,” said Foxley. “There is no inherent commitment to Cambridge, Oxford, the arc or even the UK so we have to be able to compete.” “We are in a growth phase and we need to capture that now,” added Foxley. “We need to start from what the businesses require and then everything – transport and housing – follows. The strong and consistent message from occupiers is that they are not committed to this area, they have to be attracted in.” But with a commitment from government – and an understanding that this will need to be a collaborative effort that spans many governments – the arc may have just what is needed to attract and secure investment, business and local community buy in. Growth Corridor experts Robert Jenrick MP, exchequer secretary to the treasury Matthew Bullock, founder, Cambridge Ahead, and master of St Edmunds College Pete Gladwell, head of public sector partnerships, Legal & General Investment Management, Real Assets Naisha Polaine, head of UK capital projects, Department for International Trade Sue Foxley, research director, Bidwells Matt Bigam, real estate director, GSK Roz Bird, commercial director & chair of Silverstone Technology Cluster, Silverstone Park Harriet Fear MBE, director, Harriet Fear Associates and chair-elect for Cambridge Ahead Phillip Barnes, group land director, Barratt Homes Robin Butler, managing director, Urban & Civic Sarah Greenwood, head of strategic growth, Homes England Christopher Price, director of policy and advice, CLA Iain Gilbey, partner – head of planning and environmental law, Pinsent Masons Rob Hopwood, partner – planning, Bidwells Alex Robinson, director of development for strategic land, Grosvenor Jennifer Ross, director, Tibbalds Martin Tugwell, programme director, England’s Economic Heartland To send feedback, e-mail samantha.mcclary@egi.co.uk or tweet @samanthamcclary or @estatesgazette