Former Peterborough MP Paul Bristow, selected as Tory candidate to become Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in next May’s elections, has chosen the much maligned £100,000 homes policy of former Mayor James Palmer to form part of his campaign.
The scheme was previously branded a ‘Willy Wonka golden ticket’ for a handful of hopefuls.
He has also adopted other policies from the Conservative ‘wish list’ of former Mayor James Palmer who in 2021 pledged to make a priority dualling of the A47 and A10.
Mr Bristow is yet to offer thoughts on the possibility of Mayor Palmer’s other ambitions which included upgrading Ely North junction and reopening a rail connection between Wisbech and March.
But it is Mr Bristow’s support for £100,000 homes will raise eyebrows across much of the county since only East Cambridgeshire District Council has a £100k homes policy after it was ditched by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority once Mayor Dr Nik Johnson was elected in 2021.
Even in East Cambridgeshire its future is on a knife edge where a newly formed Lib Dem/Independent alliance has drawn level with the ruling Tory group and the policy faces the axe should the council change hands.
Cllr Lorna Dupre, Lib Dem/Independent alliance leader on East Cambs Council, has been an outspoken critic of the scheme, describing it as a “Willy Wonka golden ticket” for a small number of house hunters.
Cllr Dupre said the scale of the housing was “ghastly” and of the £100,000 homes policy she said only if someone had built 2 million of them, she might have seen the benefits but that hadn’t happened.
“Lovely for those with golden tickets but not by means a solution to the overall housing crisis,” she said.
Labour Mayor Dr Johnson scrapped the scheme shortly after winning the 2021 election.
Many congratulations to @paulbristow79 for being selected as the candidate for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor. As former MP for peterborough he knows the patch very well.
— Vicky Ford (@vickyford) November 23, 2024
His predecessor James Palmer believed that £100,000 homes would make ownership possible for many more people, helping to ‘level up’ the prosperity of the region.
The plan was for the homes to be sold at a discount rate to their open market value to achieve a price tag of £100,000. The discount is then passed onto future buyers, helping more people onto the property ladder.
Bristow biggest risk is his natural home is immigration, road charging, dual A47/ A10, underground tram Cambridge
None deliverable by the Mayor.
Paul doesn't get buses etc.
He won't be the best person to get funding out of the Labour government.
— Honey Badger King (@centralsimon) November 23, 2024
“With cross-party local and national political support, we are working with local housing developers to deliver £100,000 homes, offering low interest loan funding and help navigating planning processes,” said Mayor Palmer.
But the scheme was fraught with difficulties, and Labour campaigned against them during the mayoral election. The party felt it favoured only a handful whereas the need for affordable or social home needed to be a priority
https://twitter.com/SteveBarclay/status/1860341278078034379
Critics argued that the current homes which were part of the scheme had required loans of £1million each.
And tying up of capital, they claimed, was linked to the Government’s assessment that the wider Combined Authority housing programme had made “insufficient delivery progress and that the value for money being achieved is below our expectations”.
Clearly vying for the support of Cllr Anna Bailey, Tory leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, has made it an election priority even though, ironically, the Combined Authority no longer has a housing programme.
Mr Bristow is also planning on restoring interest in light rail for Cambridge, revisiting in part some of the options also put forward by Mayor Palmer.
A Cam Metro proposal was scrapped by Mayor Johnson, but the hopes of a light rail are far from dead and buried.
The mantle of campaigning has been held by Cambridge Connect, described as “an initiative established by Dr Colin Harris, Director of the environmental planning and spatial data business Environmental Research & Assessment, located in Cambridge”.
It says its goal “is to help create an enduring system of rapid and sustainable transit that would help address the transport challenges facing Cambridge, while ensuring that the social, educational, economic, environmental, historic and cultural qualities that define the City are maintained and enhanced”.
Cambridge Connect is independent and not aligned to any political party, organisation or group and worked with Railfuture East Anglia on what they describe is a light rail system that is cost effective practical and with a lower level of risk.
The ‘Isaac Newton Line’ would be the backbone of Cambridge Light Rail. Eventually, this would extend from Cambourne in the northwest to Haverhill in the southeast, via a short tunnel in the Cambridge city centre.
The ‘Darwin Line ‘would extend overground from Cambridge North rail station to the Science Park and University West Campus, share the Isaac Newton Line through the city to the Central Rail Station, then branch to Trumpington.
Meanwhile Mr Bristow is celebrating his success after beaten off another former MP, Vicky Ford, and county council leader Steve Count to win the nomination.
Coincidentally Cambridgeshire Conservatives gathered in Whittlesey for the vote for their preferred candidate to become Mayor.
I'm told that Paul Bristow won on the first ballot with 141 of the 227 votes cast. https://t.co/71yv3D0gW9
— @Tomorrow'sMPs (@tomorrowsmps) November 24, 2024
The venue was Sir Harry Smith Community College – the same venue chosen by NE Cambs Conservatives to select their Parliamentary candidate.
Among pledges made by the successful candidate, Steve Barclay, now the constituency MP of course, was to press for dualling of the A47.
Mr Bristow posted to social media after being selected: “We are going to get Cambridgeshire moving and make our region the best place in the country to live and work.”
He said he wanted to:
Dual the A47 and the A10
Connect Ely, Cambridge and Peterborough with a much faster train
Relaunch the 100k home – delivering affordable housing
Promote light rail for Cambridge
“And I am ruling out road charging in Peterborough and Cambridge forever,” he added.
On his Facebook page one resident said they were concerned whether they would see Mr Bristow around Peterborough as “all the other regional Mayors seem to have office in Cambridge, and we never ever see them out and about in Peterborough; hopefully you’ll set up your office here in the city still”.
To which Mr Bristow replied: “100%”.
In fact, Mayor Palmer opened his office in his home city of Ely whereas Mayor Dr Johnson has his office in the headquarters of the Combined Authority. Which is Huntingdon.
