Jobs, Prosperity and Education

One of the most important functions of district councils is encouraging local economic development. We believe that Cambridge City Council could do much more to build a strong local economy, and to do so in partnership with local business.

Our overriding principles are the same as those that Liberal Democrats apply to national economic policy. First, we believe that the economy and the environment have to be considered together, but that a commitment to environmental sustainability can, if properly handled, lead to economic opportunities and higher levels of prosperity. Secondly, we believe that economic success requires a commitment to innovation and the development of new ideas and products. Thirdly, we believe that very high standards in education are crucial for economic success. Lastly, we believe that the best generators of new ideas and new jobs will be small and medium sized businesses.

Cambridge’s Labour council has often been hostile to the twin sources of Cambridge’s economic success - high tech industry and the higher education sector from which it springs. Examples in recent years include Labour’s kneejerk opposition to the Wellcome Foundation’s development proposals and its refusal to do anything to help the Royal Greenwich Observatory, whose presence in the city Labour opposed in the first place. We will build a new positive relationship with these sectors.

Our policies are designed to use the powers of local government, which are broader in the field of economic development than in virtually any other field, to anticipate the challenges of the next century and to build on Cambridge's existing advantages.

Supporting education
The main responsibility for education, of course, rests with the County Council. The County Council is among the lowest spenders per head on education in the country. The Conservative-controlled council is trying to close Coleridge Community College and schools such as Mayfield Primary are facing serious financial problems. But the origins of the problems lie in the Labour government’s slavish following of Conservative spending plans and its arbitrary spending controls.

We believe that the City Council has a role in supplementing the County Council’s education programme, especially in tough financial times. The reasons are not only economic. Youth work and education, even at under-five level, also have an eventual pay-off in terms of crime rates and public order.

This year we proposed a £50,000 package of support for local schools, including restoring the Children’s Festival, cut by Labour precisely because it helped schools, and restoring the City Council’s contribution to free school swimming, removed by Labour this year of all years. We would also have employed a economic development officer who would have been able to assist Coleridge Community College in its bid to become a school with a specialism in business links. We will seek to implement immediately as much of our package of help for local schools as we can and to develop it further in future years.

Working with small and medium size business
Small businesses are a major engine of innovation and new jobs. We believe that local government can help in the difficult transition that successful businesses have to make from struggling start-up to flourishing established business. We will set up a committee of inquiry which will consult widely with business and others on the sort of help the City Council might provide or ensure that other agencies provide.

We will also explore the idea of bringing together local financial interests, local government and the universities and colleges to look for ways of helping local people to invest in local companies.

Planning for Employment
We support the present emphasis in the local plan on encouraging the high tech sector. We also recognise that unrestricted job growth in the city centre wihthout adequate public transport would add to the city's serious environmental problems. We support a very great improvement in public transport in the city. We also recognise that planning policies should try to reduce the need for commuting of all types. We are in favour of planning policies to encourage people to live closer to where they work and policies that encourage more flexible patterns of work, including working from home. In most cases, this will mean planning for housing in the city. But where it means allowing more employment growth in the city, we believe that the Council should not stand in its way.

Supporting Innovation
The City Council lacks the powers and the money to become a major backer of research and development, but it can encourage innovation in other ways. It can publicise innovation by award schemes. It can assist in technology transfer by helping to sponsor seminars and conferences. And it can follow a policy of the early adoption of innovation in its own purchasing.

The Cambridge Labour Party’s hostility to high tech industry and higher education grows stronger every year:

• Labour opposes the location of major research institutes in Cambridge, for example the Wellcome Trust and the European Environmental Agency
• Labour councillors refused to support the Royal Greenwich Observatory in its campaign to resist closure
• Labour councillors support the introduction of tuition fees for students