Cambridge is a global success story – a bustling forum of history, tradition and learning. The city's newer role as a leading centre for bioscience and research allows it to share the world stage.

There is a big push to deliver more jobs and homes in and around the city to support Cambridge on its upward trajectory. However, you don’t have to spend very long here to see that clogged streets are in danger of blocking the way ahead.

There are currently 68,000 homes in the long-term pipeline on sites within a 20-mile radius of Cambridge, with 14,200 currently under construction. A significant proportion of the residents of these developments are likely to commute into Cambridge, adding to existing rush-hour congestion. This is already a threat to both quality of life and economic investment.

Much-needed housing growth can only be successfully delivered if it dovetails with a well-planned, timely and integrated network of new infrastructure, linking the city with its hinterland, and connecting where people live to where they work. Those enhanced links need to stretch well beyond the city too – better connecting it to other key places, including London and Oxford, and well beyond to the world at large.

Finding an answer to Cambridge’s transport woes has become an important and essential focus of attention. A variety of solutions are being investigated urgently: rail and road upgrades, for example, and even an underground shuttle network. Central and local government, including the new Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, have a crucial function in ensuring that this vital infrastructure materialises. The city can then continue to compete efficiently and effectively. With newly devolved powers and funds now being given to the area, there is great scope for innovation.

Further information

Read more: Cambridge: building its global future