Bigger Cambridge Biomedical Campus "priority" - Gove

Ben Schofield - Political correspondent, BBC East
2 min read
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Astra Zeneca's global headquarters
Astra Zeneca's global headquarters is on the Biomedical Campus [BBC]

Expanding Cambridge Biomedical Campus will be a priority for a new body charged with growing the city, a secretary of state has announced.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said the "national importance" of the city's life sciences sector justifies "early expansion" of the site.

The campus is home to the pharmaceutical giant Astra Zeneca and the multi-Nobel Prize winning Laboratory of Molecular Biology.

One local leader has questioned whether the growth will come at a cost to the green belt.

Aerial view of Addenbrooke's Hospital
Addenbrooke's Hospital is also on the site, on the city's southern edge [BBC]

In a written ministerial statement Mr Gove said the government would set up a Cambridge Growth Company.

One of its "first priorities" would be to "support immediate collaboration between key stakeholders" at the campus and to draw up new development plans.

He added: "The Government is satisfied that the national importance of the Greater Cambridge life sciences sector is sufficient to prompt, in principle, the early expansion and coherent delivery of this foremost UK life sciences cluster."

The growth company "will also help to address any barriers to the early expansion and coherent enhancement of the campus", he said.

That work would include "accelerated delivery" of housing and "appropriate levels of affordable housing" for those working at the campus.

According to the Biomedical Campus, it is the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe and contributes £4.2bn a year to the UK economy.

Earlier this year, Mr Gove published The Case for Cambridge, a growth vision for the city.

It said there was "huge potential for Cambridge to become Europe’s answer to Silicon Valley".

Building 150,000 homes in and around Cambridge could add around £6.4bn to the economy, the document added.

But it also warned a lack of laboratory space, limits on water resources and high cost of housing relative to wages were "holding back its potential".

The Biomedical Campus sits just to the south of Cambridge and falls inside South Cambridgeshire District Council's area.

The council's leader, Liberal Democrat Bridget Smith, said: "We welcome the government’s acknowledgment of the importance of the life science sector and note that the government has encouraged the stakeholders to collaborate and bring forward their proposals.

"Obviously these proposals will need to go through the usual planning application process."

Mike Davey, the Labour leader of Cambridge City Council, questioned "will the devil be in the detail" of the plans and how they might "impact on the green belt".

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