The spatial response

Greater Peterborough sub-region

Environment city, inland port and northern gateway

Peterborough is a major regional centre and gateway with an influence that extends into the East Midlands region. The sub-region enjoys a strategic location on the national road and rail network, allowing easy access to national and international markets. More than 6,000 companies are currently based within Peterborough, including some with their regional and international headquarters based in the city. Peterborough has demonstrated the strongest performance of the East of England cities in the State of the English Cities report. However, recent population growth appears to have slowed and the GVA growth is also reflective of the 19,000 people who commute into the city.

163,000 people live in the unitary authority area of Peterborough and the sub-region has experienced high levels of in-migration in recent years. The regional spatial strategy is now targeting 25,000 additional houses and 20,000 jobs for the sub-region building on a series of target sectors and current strengths, in particular environmental technologies. This is to be balanced with a concentration on improvements in the urban fabric and renewal of the city centre, new housing and investment in new educational and training opportunities, including the development of a university presence.

Assets and opportunities
  • a strong and continuing tradition of high-value manufacturing and a current concentration of employment in banking, finance and insurance services
  • Environment City status and emerging and well-supported clusters in environmental technologies and media, printing and publishing
  • strong public sector employment presence with the continuing ability to attract national agencies and organisations
  • a key gateway to and from the region towards the Midlands and the North, with good access to London and the Greater South East, with key investments infrastructure, which has enabled an emerging proposal for an 'inland port'
  • continuing strong growth, which will attract investment (eg to the city centre)
  • a strong commitment to new development and regeneration to tackle some of the causes of economic underperformance, including affordable housing provision and the quality of all developments
  • presence of major companies including Thomas Cook Group, Hotpoint, Pearl Assurance, Perkins Engines Co, Peter Brotherhood, Amp, EMAP, British Sugar plc and Fairline Boats plc.
Constraints
  • limited higher education offer and a concentration within some wards of low skills and education base
  • perception of a poor external image and a limited cultural leisure offer for the city
  • the challenges of delivering affordable housing
  • notwithstanding a positive strategic location, an identified need for specific and significant transport investment
  • an inadequate supply of suitable business premises in particular start-up and incubator units, in comparison to other major centres a weaker track record of high-value job creation.
Strategic ambitions
  • continue to diversify and improve economic performance through high-quality business support, helping businesses to grow and attracting new entrants into the local economy
  • develop attractive and distinctive public spaces throughout the city, particularly through a programme of international-quality public art
  • renew the city centre and increase Peterborough's pull as a major retail centre in the North of the region
  • provide a university presence in the city, with longer-term development of an higher education campus to increase supply of demand-led higher-level skills
  • expand the environmental technology cluster through targeted business support, finance and business space creation
  • strengthen the Environment City status by the creation of UK-leading zero-carbon housing developments
  • promote the locational advantages of Peterborough to secure increased inward investment in logistics and advanced services
  • improve opportunities for excluded people and communities to access education, training and jobs
  • harness the diversity of the city to promote community cohesion and build links for international trade and collaboration.

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