 Good afternoon everyone and hope you're all well. Welcome along to our second webinar and for the Great Cambridge Open Plan first proposals. It's lovely to have you all here and thank you for joining. Welcome back those who have been at these sessions before and welcome to those of you who are new and haven't been to the sessions before. We've got an hour-long session today which is on our jobs and homes and what I'll do is I'll introduce you, we've got a panel for you here this morning to help answer some questions. We're going to do a few slides, talk a little bit about jobs and homes, do a couple of interactive sessions as well and then leave some time for questions at the end. Please feel free to ask questions in the Q&A as we go through the webinar because our panel will do our best to answer as many questions as possible during the presentations as well. What I'm going to do quickly first is I'm going to unshare my screen. I'm going to introduce you to the panel and make an introduction themselves. So without further ado I'm going to come to Stuart. Hi my name is Stuart Morris. I'm a principal policy planner at Greater Cambridge Share Planning. Good morning Stuart, nice to have you and John. Hello I'm John Dixon. I'm the Planning Policy Manager. Hey John, Caroline. Good morning, I'm Caroline Hunt. I'm Strategy and Economy Manager. Hey Caroline and Stephen, good afternoon. Stephen Kelly, Joint Director of Planning and lastly but not least Matt. Thanks Matt Kingen, Economics Director at Consultancy. Our senior projects have been supporting on Evidence Base. Thanks Matt, thanks for joining us and just a couple from me. So we've also got Will Smith and Tim Cliff in the background here running all of the tech this morning. So you know do my big thanks to them because without them we'd be able to do this. My name's Paul Fraena. I am the Assistant Director of Strategy and Economy in the Greater Cambridge Share Planning Service. So quickly I'm just going to give a bit of an outline of the session and then I'm going to hand over to Caroline who's going to start walking you through the first slides. So here we go and I hope that you can all see my screen again. So we have got a fairly comprehensive we hope session for you. We're going to talk a little bit about why we need to plan for development, a little bit about modelling. As I said we will have a bit of a couple of interactive sessions so they're trying to get you involved in your thoughts as well. And some other thoughts from others on what happens if we don't plan enough and we will bring it together at the end and have some pre-questions and as I said if we don't get to any questions within time anything that we haven't already got on our FAQs on the website will be put up in due course. So without further ado I'm going to hand over to Caroline. Thanks Paul. So starting at the beginning I suppose really well you know what is planning all about? Why are we having this conversation and why are we producing our local plan? I mean planning is really you know the heart of planning is around how we ensure sustainable development and that's a phrase that gets banded around a lot these days and you've probably all heard it in a variety of different contexts and I think many people understand that it's about how we protect the environment in the long term so sustainable it's about sustaining a healthy planet ultimately into the future for future generations. So clearly the environmental side of things is absolutely key but the term sustainable development actually has three aspects to it. It's also about an economy because a successful economy provides us with all the products that we require to live on a day-to-day basis doesn't it as well as providing our work that sustains us as individuals it also provides the goods and services that we need to live day-to-day and there's also a social and community aspect to sustainable development so it's about how we as people living on on planet earth you know how we live and interact and how we make sure that we have an inclusive society that meets the needs of everybody and as I say it's about today but also for future generations and there's been a lot in the news recently hasn't there about the climate change and so on. I think it's also worth saying at the outset that we in terms of our planning the planning process and the planning system we have a plan led system and that means that the local plans and other development plans that local planning authorities prepare set out the policies against which planning applications are ultimately judged so it's really important that we engage effectively with our communities and all stakeholders in the plans we prepare because that plan will set the framework against which planning applications are ultimately judged so it identifies how much development it identifies where that development should go and the policies against which that development will be proposed development will be judged so this is the stage that's really important to to engage because once the plan is set it's the basis for determining planning applications so but but also we don't start with a blank sheet as as planners as local planning authorities we we have to work within national planning guidance which is set out in the national planning policy framework sometimes called the NPPF and the framework sets out very clearly for us what we're required to do as as planners and the local plan that we prepare which is a development plan it's a statutory plan it's a plan that has legal weight in making decisions so it's really important that that plan is soundly prepared and ultimately it gets tested as an examination by an independent inspector so we have to make sure that we follow the required policies and requirements in setting out our plan because ultimately it needs to be found sound in order to be able to have weight and perform its job in providing that planning framework and the framework says that we must provide for our objectively assessed needs for housing and other uses and I think the word objectively assessed is is important as well as it's our needs so what does what does that mean and we'll come on to to that this is also really important unless any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits a bit of a techie phrase but what that basically means is if meeting your needs once you've identified them would have significant harm and that could be against all sorts of different considerations but we've particularly identified the issue and challenge of water supply in this area and we'll be picking that up in a future webinar but you know we're really clear that providing our needs is dependent on having sufficient water supply because otherwise the significant impacts of doing so would be significant so that's the sort of considerations we have to weigh as we're preparing our plans so the principles we need to follow set out in the framework are that we must determine the minimum number of homes needed and our policies must be informed by a local housing needs assessment conducted using the standard method it's described as in national planning guidance but that says just to be really clear sets a minimum number of homes that that are needed but we also have to look at the framework as a whole and all the other aspects and requirements in in the framework so we have that standard method number as a starting point but we also the framework says we must give significant weight on the need to support economic growth and productivity and we know that the area here is is an area that many companies want to locate and we'll say a little bit about that in a moment and the framework also says that our planning policies and decisions should recognise and address the specific locational requirements of different sectors and that includes making provision for clusters and networks of knowledge driven creative and high technology industries and I'm sure many of you appreciate that we are an area where we have a lot of high tech industries located here and we're thinking a bit more about what why is that so when we start to think about Greater Cambridge now in terms of jobs and homes we have a pretty unique economy here actually it's internationally significant in terms of the strengths in some key sectors I mean many of you will know that we have the genome campus for example we have the Cambridge biomedical campus really important companies companies nationally and internationally here so you know the companies that mapped out the genome companies that AstraZeneca for example on the biomedical campus are really important companies in this area come here because they cluster and they benefit from that location close to each other and Greater Cambridge it's at the heart of three economic corridors so the Oxford Cambridge corridor is the one that's been talked about most recently but also the corridor down to London that includes the Sanstead area within it and also out to Norwich as well and it's been identified that there's really been sustained long-term growth in this area and the combined authorities recently commissioned independent economic review sometimes called spear for short really identified the importance of the Greater Cambridge area in supporting economic growth both locally but also nationally so it's a really flourishing area and we have but we need to make sure that we also have a mixed economy that includes a wide range of jobs you know it's not just those high tech type jobs it's also everything from teachers nurses doctors people who work in the shops people that clean our shops and premises and you know the whole range of jobs to maintain the success of the area while still also maintaining our areas global reputation for innovation but some of that has come to the cost so we know that they're really high house prices in this area we know that affordability is a real issue both you know for many of you and your families and the councils take this really seriously and how we address that that issue and just fallen off the screen there or my screen anyway also impacts around significant longer distance commuting so if we don't provide enough homes in this area and people have to commute from elsewhere that has impacts on house prices but it also has impacts on climate change through carbon emissions so a range of issues there that we need to bring together and the way we've chose we think we should approach that the way we've approached that on the next slide please Paul is to look at how we how we look at the levels of growth that are important to provide for here so as I said the government sets a method for calculating standard a standard method minimum so we thought okay well it's really important in an area of high economic growth to understand how many jobs that will support and we've done that and then we've looked to understand well depending on that level of jobs growth and it will take you through that in a moment but if the forecast jobs based on detailed evidence for our area is is more than the number of homes that the standard method would provide what does that mean we need to do because if we don't provide homes to go with those jobs what are the implications and I just talked about some of the problems that can be created with affordability and also travel and climate so that's the approach we've taken to understand whether we need to provide for a higher level of housing provision alongside rather than the standard method alongside the number of jobs we think are most likely to come to this area so that's an introduction I'm now going to hand over to Stuart who will take you through in a little bit more detail about well what does that mean for jobs and homes thanks Caroline so taking really the higher that Caroline talked about just now which was starting with the forecast jobs based on evidence for Greater Cambridge and then trying to understand if additional homes are required to support those so that's what we're looking at here so if we just think about the jobs to start with and to rely on a context this is complicated there's a lot of data involved there's a lot of sectors involved and different factors influencing those it is uncertain that the employment land an economic evidence base which sets out this stuff in detail acknowledges that it is challenging clearly nobody knows the future and the the evidence base acknowledges the challenges of confirming both historic jobs and then trying to look ahead as well but the aim is to look at all the available evidence to get the best understanding of what the future could be and I would say that clearly as we've said before it's necessary to ask that we've got in front of us even if it is difficult we've already said that we need to identify and provide for objectively assessed needs the issues Caroline's flagged about housing affordability for example show the importance of understanding that relationship between homes and jobs and there's also evidence such as the independent economic review that Caroline referred to showing that jobs growth has been higher than we thought might happen in the adopted plan so we need to explore this in some detail as I say we've just looked at all the relevant data to really get that best understanding so to try and summarize the approach taken by Max and colleagues in the consultant team and trying to do that at a fairly high level so if we start by looking backwards reviewing both the recent and longer term historic employment trends to get an understanding what has happened in the past to give us a basis for looking ahead and then when we do look ahead we start with the standard regional economic forecast which has been used by many planning authorities at other examinations and is something that's necessary to use because it provides that view on sectors that then gives us an understanding of our employment land needs so he's that as a starting point but then looking at a range of evidence including again at the past evidence of trends within key sectors from talking to businesses and considering the needs of those individual sectors colleague Matt and colleagues identified key sectors in Greater Cambridge that we anticipated to grow above that baseline and looking at that in detail came out and identified research and development professional services in health and care as the sectors that the baseline didn't appear to accommodate what might be reasonably anticipated to come forward so the conclusions to that work really was that the main conclusion was a central scenario considered to be the most likely and that in account accounts for a long-term pattern of employment including what's been seen recently so there's been particularly fast growth since 2010 and that most likely scenario accounts for both that longer term and the shorter term it did also identify a higher scenario which is plausible and places a greater weight on that more recent fast jobs growth so that's the jobs New York is the homes obviously the aim was to understand how many homes might be needed to support those jobs and clearly there's a whole report which is going on housing and employment relationships report which sets us out in detail but very very roughly starting with jobs and moving to workplace population the people working in those jobs a key point is commuting patterns where are those people come from when they're traveling to work you then get to resident population resident households and finally homes and flagging that point about commuting patterns we did explore that in detail I guess a default assumption would be that census 2011 patterns continue we also explored a different assumption such that all the additional homes generated by the forecast jobs that we got on the left above those supported by the standard method minimum homes would be provided in full within greater Cambridge and we explored those two assumptions and our conclusion was to identify a housing forecast associated with that most likely jobs forecast and on the basis that we're seeking to minimize that longer distance commuting with focus very much on the assumption that we would provide all those additional homes needed to support the additional jobs and standard method within greater Cambridge so that's how we did it if we just take a look at what the numbers are coming out of that if you can be a slide thank you so again just thinking about the homes to jobs and jobs to homes minimum growth so government standard method homes and then what jobs would that support so the number of homes is similar to what we planned for last time a bit higher but that ends up as supporting slightly fewer jobs per year they're in they're in our adopted local plans and that's in itself in terms of the jobs scenario is 12 or 13,000 jobs less than what our employment evidence shows as being the most likely so that suggests that if we were to plan for our standard method homes that would be likely to contribute to those problems that we've seen of worsening housing affordability and further increased longer distance commuting because we would essentially be the under providing homes to meet the jobs that we expect to come forward so that central most likely scenario is for about 58,500 jobs and that would accounting for those providing all the additional homes above standard method in terms of the jobs provision would result in a figure of 44,400 homes you can see there's the highest scenario there too and that's a significant number of jobs over and above what we see is the most likely so 78,700 and a bigger number in homes again we'd note that even that higher scenario isn't as high as what was suggested might come forward in the independent economic review even though you can see it's a very very considerable number of homes and jobs as I say we have identified that what we think the most likely scenario for jobs and the homes need to support that as being our objectively assessed need for jobs and homes a key point just to end on really is that obviously these are big figures but we already have a big supply of jobs employment land and homes committed in the adopted local plans so that these numbers you see you need to subtract that supply to get to the numbers that we are planning for later in which Caroline will touch on later in the plan so these are big numbers but you need to subtract the commitments these aren't all new homes needing to be found I'll pass you back to Paul now for the interactive session thank you very much and Caroline as well it was really comprehensive I just noted that a little bit of the tech on one of those slides there isn't showing on the bottom of the screen I think that we're just trying to fit so much information onto some of these slides that that's the problem the deck will be shared alongside the recording so we'll be able to pick that up anyway there and as and you know I suppose you know the you know the background of that is there is a lot of work in this and there's a lot of um details that people do want to explore further we'll give you the details obviously of where all of the publication all of the evidence bases and all of the topic papers including the plan are so people can explore greater detail so yes and as as as Stuart said what we're going to try and do now is we're going to try and have a little bit of an interactive session to get you thinking break up a bit slightly from us talking at you all the time and so we're going to use something called Mentometer and so we've used this once already before it worked pretty well and and you should be able to see my screen now which shows the mentee and the mentee logo and where you need to go and what we'll do is we'll ask you a question and get you to feedback some I've been told to leave this up for a little bit longer because last time people didn't have access to the to the slides they couldn't log in so you can do it one of two ways you can um just put your camera on that QR code and it will take you to the right place I think you have to have a certain type of smartphone but it should do it if you have problems with that alternatively you go to www.menti.com and type in that code which is 850062 and it will take you to this mentee screen the actual code is at the top of all the slides so when we move to the next slide which I'm going to do right now it should be able you should be able to see at the top of the screen the code and let me know if you can't do that and we'll just type it into the Q&A so I'm going to ask you this question and and you can you know put as many answers in as you want for this but it's just to get our minds thinking as well and so do you do you think bearing in mind this is the webinar topic today do you think that it's important to plan for enough jobs and for enough homes and if you do think so why do you think that is and I might come to the panel for some of their own thoughts on this um you know as we're going but I don't want to lead people but if you start typing into the mentee they should come up on the screen we can talk through them as they come through so so let's come to you Stephen what do you think about planning for jobs and homes what's your thoughts on this you're a very experienced planner so you know you've worked in many many different places and have lots of experience with this um well I'll try and be brief and of course if you don't think we should I think it's also important that you say in the mentee script why um why you don't think we should but but fundamentally obviously we have an obligation in many respects to try and properly match the infrastructure and the elements of the that go with new homes and and jobs we have an obligation certainly as planners to properly plan for that or to try and plan for that and that includes not just those things that are positive associated with it but to try and manage the impacts and some of the negative consequences that people have rightly highlighted to date and it's only by being honest about what those issues are both in terms of what we think is going to happen that in many ways we can we can approach that conversation with our eyes wide open with with our communities yeah absolutely and I mean some of the coming through already you know highlight some of the you know the some of the detail that Stuart was giving you know homes you know and jobs come hand in hand together at the moment you know there are some questions around you know the future of working and what we've seen through COVID but you know at the moment we do you know we do them very much together and affordability is you know another another key one in terms of making sure that we plan for things in the right places and I think an interesting one there is is properly planned and and that's a really good point and that's what we really are trying to do with this I mean in the UK we are a plan led system so you know real focus should be on this part of the planning process you know ensuring that we get the right framework in place to outline at least you know where we are putting things and how much we think we might need and you know you know in terms of what Stuart's saying yes things are inherently uncertain but you know we still have a job to do to try and create some you know some buffer of certainty around it and is anyone others there that are standing out others on the panel that I want to pick up on I think it's interesting to see the leveling up point which I'm assuming almost goes with the view that we should be taking a national view of these issues and so on well clearly we do fit into a national picture there is regional planning going on particularly the ox cam corridor level which we'll have to respond to but at the more local level we are guided nationally to respond to the needs of the area through our planning process so we do need to address what our needs locally are as well as responding to that national picture so there's a complex issue there yeah absolutely I mean one of the comments that's just come up that you know like to touch on it is enough for who and I think you know it's the board range isn't it because as much as we are obviously you know planning for people who are part of our communities and residents here you know that our plan goes to 2041 so you know we're planning for people who you know you know who will be working that aren't who are in primary school now you know who aren't even in school will be planning for schools that for people who aren't even born yet so it's really important to understand that you know although we don't know the answers we have to look at what we have known historically take that with trends and then you know and then really understand that and try and do our best but you know plans are a five-year process you know we do it to write this in five years and so it's really interesting to see some of those coming through so we will be capturing a lot of these comments as we go through it's part of our consultation to take these all into consideration but I think it's really nice to see some thoughtful answers coming through here and is very much in the direction of travel of what we you know kind of think about when we're planning this stuff I'm gonna I'm gonna cut off the mentee now but thank you all for engaging we have got another one in a little while as well I'm gonna stop my screen share so we have got another one in a little while I'm gonna also now we're gonna move back just a quick slide that I think that John's gonna touch on and really on you know trying to explain what would happen from a planning perspective I suppose if we didn't you know if we didn't turn if we didn't plan for enough time so John can hand over to you and hopefully we should have the slide back up again now there we go um well what are some of the consequences so in in terms of the technical side of planning we've got technical requirements and expectations about what our plan needs to do in order to be sound and in our first webinar on consultation and how the plan making process works we talked a lot about soundness and what our plan needed to do to be able to be adopted and one of those points was it needs to be properly prepared and have a strategy which as a minimum seeks to respond to what's called the object for your assessed needs unless there are environmental issues which effectively prevent you from from doing so some of the other consequences are that we are required to maintain an effective land supply across the area and that's measured to something called the five-year land supply requirement so each year we have to demonstrate what our requirement would be against our adoptive plans working how many houses we're required to deliver over a five-year period and then demonstrating quite a lot of detail about all the sites that will be developed all the houses that will be built in that period to demonstrate we've robustly provided a housing land supply that will deliver those homes so the consequences of not doing that are in simple terms we lose some control over how we plan in the district so some of our policies will be given less weight it may mean you get sites which aren't necessarily reflective of our adoptive plan for example so it's very important we have an effective plan which demonstrates how we'll meet our needs where and when it will happen and how it'll be supported so and in all that detail that's really one of the reasons why we do our plan making but thinking about some other consequence if you don't plan effectively for our development needs clearly it wouldn't allow us to have a forward-looking picture of what infrastructure was needed so the transport the schools all the other things you'd expect to see coming along with developments we need our plan to be in place so we can effectively plan with all our partners to make sure they're also being planned and timed to be available when they're needed we need to look at housing affordability so we need to keep our supply of homes coming forward because everybody knows there are significant price issues around the Cambridge area and we need to make sure we're delivering homes to do our part in helping respond to those issues and also delivering significant elements to be affordable housing in terms of employment land supplier required to maintain an effective supply of employment land but if we don't do that actually some of the firms that would be most affected are the lower value sectors and the lower value companies which would struggle to find supply and in sustainability terms one of the biggest impacts would be if the jobs keep happening for example and we don't plan for the homes there'd be more and more commuting from a wider and wider area clearly one of our aims is to enable homes to come forward with jobs so people have the opportunity to access either nearby jobs or accessor jobs by you know sustainable modes like walking cycling public transport and so on and we need to consider our plan overall in sustainability terms in social economic and environmental issues so it's all three parts of sustainability rather than just being you know one environmental issue we need to look at the whole aspect of sustainability and we get asked a lot as well about what the impacts are of COVID and Brexit clearly that we're going undertaking a lot of change happening nationally at the moment we know there are significant issues for the plan the challenges that a lot of the impact of those issues are still becoming clear a lot of the economic results are still being known a lot of the forecasting impacts will still be looked at so we know it's something we need to keep in mind as we move forward but the data isn't very complete yet we don't really know what the full impact of COVID is going to be for example we have got some information the slide goes on to talk about that there has effectively been periods of lost growth which we'll need we'll need to look at as the data actually becomes available it's interesting those issues actually vary a lot by economic sector and a lot of the sectors in the Cambridge area so health biotech and so on actually been those ones are most resilient actually most needed through this period we also get asked a lot about what's happening regarding changing working patterns and I think like everybody else we what we still need to understand what the picture is going to be like when things do become more normal but there is still high demand for workspace around the Cambridge area that's apparent at the moment and then just finally final slide from this section and we also are aware of water supply issues that are important for the planner we've put this slide in several of our presentations because it is an important issue we know there are issues about the pressure on the chalk wrack for where a lot of our water comes from there are planning process in place by the water industry to look at how we can get water more sustainably to deliver in the future so for example new reservoirs or connections up to other areas but that planning process is still taking place so we really need to know the outcome of that before we fully understand how our plan can move forward and we've been very clear on that in the consultation and with that I think I'll hand back to Paul for another interactive session. Thanks thank you very much John and that was helpful to have some context from our perspective as well and yeah we will run another interactive session now and hopefully you enjoyed the last one I'm sure you're absolutely excited about the next one I've got in store for you here and essentially yeah it's very interesting isn't it to talk about sustainability in the round really and the water issue obviously we know that that's that's a huge concern not just to our communities but to us as well because as planners you know we are trying to balance all of these things up and if you are interested as I say we'll come to it at the end there are a number of sessions that are going into more detail on some of these specifics we've actually got a session tomorrow on the sites but next week we have a whole session dedicated to climate change and and the water issues are going to be discussed in in far greater detail during that session so I'm going to move to this next mentee again same process same code I think this time which is quite good I think we we're getting the hang of this now so what we'd like you to do really just quickly is to rank these priorities or these five particular priorities then in terms of when we're planning for new jobs and homes now we've just thrown these five on here you know if you think there are other priorities that we should definitely be thinking of then please put them into q and a we can stimulate some conversation within the q and a with it within the q and a with that but um you know as we've said you know don't just use the ones next to us and you can see that our our plan our whole plan is built upon you know the themes that we've kind of gone all the way through is around you know in you know inclusion and well-being climate change by university in great places but structured with the underlying need and sustainable need to provide homes jobs and the infrastructure that we are required to to support that and so yeah you know rank them and you know as I say you know feel free to add some of your own thoughts into the q and a about what you think might be might be priorities as well because there are also lots of other priorities within this you know within the plan that we're trying to tease out and certainly you can get your views on so housing affordability is coming up first here which which is really interesting actually and and and I'll welcome thoughts from the panel on this as as as they're seeing some of these things come through because you know as in a way in some ways it's a little bit of a trick question because they're also interlinked in the way that you know you can't have one without the other essentially and the housing affordability is definitely coming through I don't know what I expected then I suppose I don't know what I expected people to say I know there's only only 40 or 50 of you on the group it'd be great to take this out everybody in the whole ago to change so high up on the agenda and you know you will note that actually a lot of our plan is based quite fundamentally on how we you know how we deliver the next 15 to 20 years and also you know move towards getting to a net zero net zero target Caroline John have you got any thoughts on on that kind of that ranking and what you think from a planning or plan making perspective bearing in mind that you know you you are fundamentally involved in producing the last adopted plans and how that's looking in terms of changes so I think from my perspective you tried to pick up some of the broad issues I'm noting in the Q&A there's an awful lot of other issues being raised which I suspect will come on to in some of the discussion if we haven't answered some of the points through the through the chat our big themes which have really guided the structure of the document really you try and almost address well all of these through plan making so as you know we've addressed very strong policies regarding climate change in terms of impact on natural resources one of these issues on sustainability is we need to demonstrate that in meeting our needs we have considered impacts on the environment and you'll see we've prepared a significant evidence base looking at all the environmental issues that inform the plan and whether the development can be met in a sustainable manner we've also done an awful lot of work looking not only at the overall jobs growth but very much exploring what types of jobs we've provided including being informed by the study which Matt on this call worked extensively on and also we did add very clear theme on on health and addressing equality issues which I think was been a real driver for the plan it's actually difficult to rank these in some ways and I think some of the impression we got through the responses to the consultation on the first consultation last year was that clearly everybody felt a lot of them are important and it was difficult to draw out one over another I think one of the most overriding points though we had was climate change really did come out as a key driver and that's not just setting all building standards that is about how you meet development is where you plan those needs and those really have driven how we've prepared this consultation yeah absolutely and I mean I think this is interesting to see housing at the top and inequality and poverty at the bottom and you know obviously intrinsically linked in that respect so okay well let's let's let's move through the last slides because then we can pick up some of those others in the Q&A now and what I'll do is I'll then I'm going to go to Caroline who's going to wrap up for us and brings start bringing bringing it all together I suppose and Caroline I'm just going to hand over to you I'm just going to show you my deck and see if we can get these slides out there and yeah thanks Paul now yeah lovely thank you um yeah so just in just to bring it all all back together then before we start um answering some questions um live um so we've identified what we believe to be our need for new jobs and for new homes uh we're still understanding needs for gypsy and traveller communities COVID has held up that particular piece of evidence so now we we do believe that we have that that clarity on on our needs and we have looked um as to how we provide for those needs so um on the next slide and I think I think this comes to um some of the issues that were coming out of the uh the the interactive session just now um Paul could you go to the next slide please um because I think we're starting to move into into the strategy and where we provide for the homes and jobs so uh we're we're going to try to stick to the numbers today largely um and we have a session tomorrow on on the strategy and the site so please do come back to that session if that's something that is particularly of interest to you but it is important while we're talking about the numbers to recognise that we already have a significant amount of supply in our current plans and planning permissions um so we whilst those numbers are big if looking at homes first um we already have over 37 000 homes in in the pipeline that goes a long way towards uh that 44 000 plus uh homes um we we all and that's in our current plans um and we do think it's important to include a little bit of flexibility in our supply because things don't always go as you predict um and therefore we also think it's important to include um a buffer around about a 10 percent buffer we think it's a reasonable buffer to include from from previous experience so that means when you take account of the supply that we have uh we need to find sites for around another 11 and a half thousand more homes and in terms of the strategy that we're starting to look to which very much goes to that discussion around um climate change being high up your list of important considerations it's very much about where development goes that helps uh address the climate impacts of development so that people don't have to rely on a car as the first point of transport and so on so we're looking to make the best use of the sites we already have so um assuming some faster delivery at northstone water beach a bit more development at eddington uh and new sites around the edge of cainbridge so north east cainbridge cainbridge east um in terms of housing and some job and and canborn as a location for uh significant further growth um and also from a business point of view down at the cameshire biomedical campus so i'm not going to touch in any more on that today um but that's a a bit of an intro to tomorrow's session so as I say please do come back um if you are interested in finding out and engaging more with us on on on that issue um uh and I just to say in terms of the questions we will try to run through as many of them as we can we haven't given you written answers to some of those because they're perhaps easier to talk through at this stage um and then if we do uh don't get through as paul said we'll provide some written responses to follow thanks paul yeah thanks caroline and just as you know appreciate that people aren't going to be able to make in person all of these sessions or especially all of these sessions so we are recording them all um and we're promoting them out as soon as we've top and tailed kind of you know made sure that they're all ready to go they go live I think the one from last week is already live on the website this will go live as soon as we're ready to drop it and again tomorrow so if you don't if you can't make it or you know people who can't make it please do point them in the direction it's up on the um the uh website on you can see at the bottom there also if you're on twitter or um or any of the other social media platforms if you hashtag gc local plan it will bring up any of the social media that's going on around the local plan at the moment and you'll be able to see what's being uploaded and when it's being uploaded um so please do that as well and so yeah we've got another few events of these webinars coming up um but obviously there is a full event program we are going out on the site as well as much as we can and so please do join us um so what I'm going to do now is I'm going to move over to actual questions we've still got quite a few so we'll move to the move to the panel and I'm going to come I haven't been able to see any questions so far so far so it's all going to be a big surprise to me picking them up now because I've had my screen on share so yeah um let's let's go through some of these um right let's have a go and I won't mention names you are able to post anonymously in here as well if you if you do wish to um please go ahead so um here's one why is there no effective limit on the number of jobs planned in the first proposal source other than the market's ability to deliver from the large supply land from economic development which already exists plus new allocations proposed at northeast Cambridge and elsewhere by 2014 um and if I understand that question right maybe John um you could answer that one or Caroline I'll be kind of for you but I'm happy to start on that one if that's helpful um so um it's an interesting question isn't it um and I think employment operates in a slightly different way from housing so this is an area that has been very successful in delivering economic growth or has delivered a lot of economic growth I appreciate you may or may not think that's successful um but certainly has delivered a lot of growth um and particularly in some sectors but over a very long period of time I've been working in this area for over 20 years now and we've always carried a very significant supply of employment land and even when we've been delivering jobs at a fast rate we we've never used up all that supply at any point in time so I think having that larger supply gives some flexibility in the area means it can flex with the different economic cycles and it also means there's some flexibility in the location for development for different uses and and and their needs um I think there's been comments in the in the chat around the levelling up issue and I think that's a really interesting one because um whilst government has recently started talking about levelling up we don't know quite what that means or quite how that might feed into policy but they're still certainly very um keen to see economic growth around the country they're very keen to support economic growth in the Oxford Cambridge ARC um the combined authorities independent economic view recognize the importance of greater Cambridge particularly in some of those key sectors of life sciences and so on so it's not the easiest question to to answer and there's a very long technical report that Matt who's on the call here and team authored but what they've looked to do is to really try and understand our economy and our sectors and how they perform how they have been performing and make their uh their best forecast on what is most likely to happen over the next planned period and that also does look at what's happened over the recent past so um you know there's an element of it being kind of scientific but there's also an element of there being a bit of an art in here as well so Matt is there anything that you think would be helpful to add on on that without getting into too much technicalities that might give people a bit more of an understanding around that issue? I mean this is a perhaps point to consider is is right at the start that what what officers are trying to achieve is a plan that will be found sound by the inspector when it goes through the full planning process and obviously there's lots of things to take into account sustainability kind of homes and jobs the framework which the plan is measured against is the government's own framework and the government don't have a process for setting kind of up a limit on jobs but what they do expect is that objective evidence is prepared to allow you know of us examining the plan to feel that you know a proper understanding has been made of the economy and the best planning has possible has been made to kind of to support and acknowledge that so I mean I think we've as has been said spent a lot of time trying to understand the economy look at how it's performed in the past and how that might influence the future and then the plan as it's sort of moving forward is trying to you know facilitate growth in a balanced way it you know there could be ways in which they could be trying to push harder but I think it's got this media idea of medium growth it is a balanced one and it's one which ensures as the plan moves forward you know it tries to support growth without facing very much criticism that actually not enough is being done to support the economy which would be the other end of the challenge as that plan kind of gets through to the examination process so there isn't a natural kind of upper limit on how to curtail growth although maximizing the efficiency of land is obviously important and a lot of northeast Cambridge proposals do seek to to do that in terms of brownfield redevelopment and regeneration. At the same time Cambridge is unique in its national and international status as a place where some kinds of activities and research take place and the plan is sort of trying to ensure that that could continue to happen provide research you know and everything around the healthcare and you know keep its kind of place and contribution to that national international agenda. I'll just add to that one quick people I'm also noting questions about land supply and specific references to figures the other issue just to know is on our land supply that often our particular land supply is unusual because it's made up of a number of large sites so we end up with large numbers where sites will take a number of years to come forward and that's really effective so think about our new settlements think about our major employment parks and so on they mean you get large amounts of land supply which is carried forward and meets needs over a long period and that's reflected in that supply and another issue in the question was well do we effectively unallocate sites and the answer to that is yes there are sites in the first proposals consultation which we've identified as not being proposed to carry forward into the new plan so we look at those sites each time we review a plan see if any allocations do warrant change so you can find that again in our evidence base and also you can comment on this issue through the consultation. Thanks John, thanks Matt, thanks Caroline. I'm going to move to a slightly different question now so how do the numbers relate to the aspirations of the Oxcam arc so I'll start off with this one and then maybe Steven you might want to come in with some answers on this one I mean the Oxcam arc in itself is is a not particularly well defined thing at the moment I mean we are part of it but we are the local planning authorities and you know we is it's incumbent upon us to be planning for jobs and homes rather than and rather than government in that respect and so there is a I think there's a vision for the spatial framework for the Oxcam arc which has just been out to consultation I think it closed in October with their plans we don't know whether that's going to go forward at and at what pace but their plans to bring a spatial framework forward over the next couple of years now obviously we work as closely as possible we can with kind of all of these interoperable feet you know places and organizations and other strategic infrastructure that we have to assess when we're doing the planning but Oxcam something that we have to work with and but at the moment is there's no so Steven do you want to add anything else can you hear me Paul I'm not sure anybody could make sense I was I couldn't hear you fully but yeah well really just to add to the point the Oxcam arc and the spatial framework consultation suggests that the spatial framework will provide details of housing overall need across the arc and potentially locations for growth and we have sort of clarity on what that translates to on a kind of authority by authority basis I think from our perspective our approach to the Oxcam arc is at a strategic level it recognizes the significance of places like Greater Cambridge and the significance to the economies of the country as well as reflecting an ambition that the higher levels of environmental stewardship and performance are captured in future growth discussions in terms of numbers Chris Pinscher has previously said that local authorities will play a central role in establishing the housing needs and we are taking that at face value at this moment in time we have a very substantial and we've been talking about it this morning we think a very well thought through justification for the housing numbers that we've currently put forward but of course we're seeking everybody including all of your views on that and we would expect quite robustly to reflect that back to government if they were to seek to do something different through what can only be a much higher level and less topic and an area specific basis thanks Stephen I apologize I hope you can all still hear me I was a momentary drop off on like usually pretty good at this time of the day okay so no one here paragraph 61 of MPPF a nice technical one for here as straight to paragraphs of MPPF and says exceptional circumstances justify an alternative approach which also reflect current and future demographic train trends and market signals so on what date something that right you have the demographic train trends in base now I'm not sure we can answer that exactly but I'm I challenge anyone of the panel to come back with an answer on that that in that as such and I can attempt to answer that I mean I mean the latest date possible I think is the answer to that so the evidence principally regarding sort of employment and demographics was published I think autumn 2020 and probably dates to the 2018 population projections which was being used by Cambridge Conometrics at the time and it may be the case that as the plan preparation moves forward there are the light touch updates to the evidence that that is issued which was which keep that up to date so I think it's incumbent and the authority will continue to use the latest date available and that's the inspector will will be looking to as they move forward and that probably relates to some of those questions on sort of Brexit and Covid that things are always changing and all planning authorities will try and present them the latest information available to them at that time and that that's only what can be reasonably expected thank you Matt that's really helpful and okay is planning for jobs an option for fewer jobs an option i.e limiting employment land available so that jobs are diverted to other areas so I think if I just go first and then perhaps John comments I think there's the the role of the role of Greater Cambridge I think we we need to recognize it is is is not unique but it's it's fairly substantial in terms of the country's interests things like the life sciences industrial strategy and as Paul highlighted earlier I think in the comments I mean that our bits of the economy are absolutely central to UK PLC's long-term economic position and and Covid in many respects has only served to emphasize the significance of precision medicine and and healthcare in both the security of the country but actually also in in in addressing long-term health and well-being issues so there is an element to which seeking to limit the amount of of space that we provide for those for those important sectors does potentially one of two things and a number of people have said if you limit the land available in Greater Cambridge for life sciences for example or some of the digital AI and those companies will just go to other areas in the UK and there's quite a strong argument that's made that that isn't necessarily what happens those countries those companies will go to other parts of Europe or indeed to other parts of parts of the world so unlike many parts of the country we we have the unenviable positioning in which we have a responsibility that goes well beyond the boundaries of Greater Cambridge and relates to the objectives the very high level objectives of sustainable development for the country to both capture and help mature these really significant and important sectors not least for the for the area but also thinking forwards in terms of the points that people have made about economic opportunity and the importance of having those future roles for young people today available locally and and and in Greater Cambridge and the UK rather than necessarily seeing those opportunities disappear so I think it conceivably you could make it incredibly difficult or you could try to make it incredibly difficult for jobs to continue to be created in this part of the world you can expect very very strong pushback from UK government and indeed substantial questions about further investment in infrastructure and the justification for it recognizing for example things like the very substantial city deal that Cambridge has almost disproportionate in terms of its size relative to other city deals elsewhere which reflect the government's importance given to places places like Greater Cambridge I don't know if John wants to comment further just quickly before you do John I'm going to bring up the slide that shows how you can get involved in the consultation we're taking over one or two questions while writing I know we're slightly over but there's quite a lot still to go on and happy to run over five five minutes but I'm going to bring up the slide so you can all essentially see how to access the consultation so you can put your detailed comments there and please do go to the consultation there's a number of ways you can get involved with it and use a QR code or a scope to the above John sorry I'm Steve's given a very eloquent response all I say is in technical terms if you look to the national planning policy framework which really sets out how we should be providing a sound plan it would be about demonstrating that there's issues and the strategy would come up with our sound we've responded to needs and responded to the environmental social economic issues of the area so any case you make would have to be based around that clearly in putting out the consultation we think we have addressed or explored environmental social and economic issues and come up with the right strategy for the area and now it's for people to comment on that before we draft the plan so if we very much want to hear whether we got it right whether we've got it wrong what do you think we should do instead that's a real key part of this process yeah thanks John I'm just going to pick up because there's a couple of questions around kind of homes and work changes and working practices around Covid I mean we discussed it before and John did bring it up in the slide I mean we are aware that people have changed you know slightly how they're working and you know we're all working at the moment I think it's it's important to you know understand that actually a lot of modelling has to be a little bit more long-term and that we don't know what trends will move forward or what will hold and what won't but we are certainly and we will be doing some further economic work over the next year the next part plan making but you know it's important to remember that local plans are also iterative processes you know you know this is our plan for the next this will be our plan for the next you know 20 years but we will be reviewing that on a regular basis minimum five so you know we will be able to review those those you know those policies as we go forward and you know I think we are all working in an area where things have happened have accelerated kind of the way that we work and live in the last year and a half and you know how we have to be cognizant of that but we also have to be cognizant of the trends develop over time and we need to look at look at that time you know proportionately to plan effectively and okay I'm going to go to one more question now let's just spin down to one that seems to be I can see a few have been answered please explain the calculation for medium plus target for growth I think that probably might be Caroline to explain that are you happy to do that Caroline on that I'm happy to talk to that one Paul so medium plus is it's essentially the the medium growth level in terms of jobs and providing all the homes associated with that uplifting jobs above those supported by the standard method we've tried a number of different ways of trying to explain this quite tricky issue but if you remember back to that picture with the houses and the brief cases number of jobs that are supported by the standard method how many more jobs do we think we're going to provide in our area and how many more homes do we need to provide to deal with those additional jobs the medium plus means that all those additional homes are we're proposing would be provided in our area rather than require people to travel from outside thank you very much Caroline that's a yes it's a difficult thing to explain okay everybody well we're five minutes over so I'm going to stop there as I say the website the recordings um the recording is is going to be will be live probably by the end of the week we've managed to get through you know a huge number of questions but you know out of the eight remaining we will get those that haven't been answered in some form already that already are answered on our website we'll get them into FAQs I'd like to thank you all very very much for coming along and then joining in and engaging today it's been a pleasure to have you I really like to thank all of the panel and you know thank you for all of your thoughts and adding to the content with that especially as you're not part of our direct teams thank you for coming along and as I say please get involved it's really important that you know you communicate your views on this stuff and you'll see on the website follow the hashtag and keep coming along to the sessions we'll be running them throughout the month and but otherwise I wish you all a fantastic afternoon and a fantastic week and I look forward to seeing you in the next session tomorrow