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Spotlight: Cambridge: building its global future – 2017

Cambridge is already a globally successful city. Yet its success risks being held back by looming shortages in the commercial and residential markets, and by infrastructure bottlenecks

Cambridge continues to grow as a hub of global importance for bioscience and technology research and development. It can maintain a competitive edge as labour costs are up to 32% lower than in the US. See 'A global player'.

The commercial development pipeline is undersupplied with only 1.3 years of office/lab space remaining. The challenge is to provide the right space for more larger-scale occupiers. There is also a shortage of startup and grow-on space. See 'Investing for business growth'.

Median house prices in the city are 13.5 times more than median earnings, almost twice the national average. Values are equivalent to parts of London. With no obvious trigger for a correction in prices, there is a case for extending the 40% Help to Buy equity loan scheme to Cambridge. See 'New jobs need new houses'.

Both the city and surrounding area need to continue to provide more housing at a range of price points, particularly as housing affordability becomes stretched. Economic growth will be hindered if employees of all levels are priced out of the area. See 'Cambridge buyers'.

Local and central government has a crucial role to play. Future commercial and residential growth needs to be supported by strong and timely new infrastructure. There is scope for further action with newly devolved powers and funding. See 'Trains, planes and cycle lanes'.

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