A week is a long time. It was only seven days ago that I was lamenting the ways the planning system stymies entrepreneurs. Soon after – I can claim no credit, sadly – Michael Gove announced an ambitious plan to build more homes in Cambridge, including a major new quarter for the city.
The need for this is obvious to most people (if it’s not, read The Housing Theory of Everything). On both the left and the right of British politics – and everything in between – it is generally agreed that successive governments’ failure to allow building has held back growth. The politicians know this, though have been shy to say so publicly.
Less recognised, however, is the need to build out Cambidge’s lab space for innovators. As we argued in Strong Foundations, labs often need bespoke design, like higher ceilings to allow for fume hoods, ventilation systems, and ‘dirty corridors’ between labs so that researchers do not need to ‘gown-up’ and ‘gown-down’ as they would in a traditional office building.
Gove’s speech was spot on: “While Cambridge’s growth has been held back, its rivals abroad have benefited. In 2021, Boston had 6 million square feet of lab space under development; in an average year, Cambridge and Oxford together managed just 300,000 square feet. In Cambridge today, you have to wait almost a year for the next available lab space: that is no way to incubate the dynamic technological innovators that we sorely need.”
If you live in Cambridge – or even if you don’t – you may be thinking: well, that’s all well and good, but we don’t want ‘Barratt Boxes’ ruining one of the world’s most beautiful cities. But this isn’t what is being proposed – we don’t need to compromise between beauty and density.
Samuel Hughes has written the must-read article on this – an important read given his research helped make this happen. As he writes: “There is no economic or technical reason that the Government could not allow something that resembles the urbanism of Clifton or the Edinburgh New Town. It just needs to allow building on sites where people really want to live, namely sites that are contiguous with the existing settlement.”
The solution wasn’t rocket science, but, if it happens, science and entrepreneurship will certainly rocket.
Punt on the Future
Beyond agglomeration, Cambridge, and the country at large, would benefit from more university spinouts. On Monday we’ll be releasing a punchy paper on this topic. If you want to get it in your inbox as soon as we unleash it to the world, sign up here.
May I take your order?
At a number of recent roundtables, entrepreneurs have discussed their desire to exit their business. While successful exits are the sign of a healthy ecosystem, many of these decisions are being undertaken for the wrong reasons: the political landscape, access and costs of capital, and rising costs of doing business. Of equal concern, many have discussed their plans to move their business overseas, which could be avoided if the UK had a more favourable business environment.
These anecdotes were recently confirmed by recent polling by Evelyn Partners, which found that the majority of UK businesses with a turnover of £5 million upwards are pursuing an exit strategy: 65% of owners are looking to sell off their enterprises, with 40% planning to exit within the next year.
This is why we’re joining up with Evelyn Partners for a private roundtable to better understand entrepreneurs’ concerns. With an election around the corner, we will take your anonymised views to the Government and opposition.
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