There’s a new kid on the block for the Ox-Cam Arc

A new government body has been set up to promote economic growth along the East West Rail route. The new body, called the East West Rail Economic Growth Board, is made of five government departments and will be chaired by HM Treasury. Information about the Growth Board is hard to come by, however.

Its existence was confirmed in November 2023 through a parliamentary question to the Treasury, asked by Richard Fuller, Conservative MP for North East Bedfordshire. But the Growth Board had already held its first meeting in September 2023, according to a National Audit Office (NAO) report. The Growth Board hasn’t published the meeting minutes for that or any subsequent meetings.

Request for transparency

In a bid to get more information, the campaigning organisation, Cambridge Approaches, asked for the meeting minutes through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. The Treasury rejected the request, giving as one of the reasons: that disclosing the meeting minutes would impinge upon the ability of officials to ‘formulate and develop policy options freely and frankly’.

Cambridge Approaches is appealing the decision. In their appeal, they also ask for more information:

  • The terms of reference for the Growth Board

  • The names and roles of people attending its meetings

HM Treasury say they are currently considering the appeal.

More information from the National Audit Office (NAO)

In 2023, the NAO investigated the East West Rail business case and the strategic need for the project. As part of its report in December 2023, the NAO makes recommendations about plans for growth along the East West Rail route. It recommends that development and growth associated with East West Rail should be locally led. It also recommends that the business plan for East West Rail should contain a ‘plan for economic growth in the local areas impacted, including Cambridge’.

Workstreams

More recently, we learn that the Growth Board has defined some workstreams for itself. At a Transport Committee meeting held in March 2024, a Department for Transport official said that the Growth Board set up six workstreams:

  • Place-making

  • Science

  • Business investment

  • Transport delivery, including wider connectivity

  • Development models for investment on sites around East West Rail

  • Overall alignment between East West Rail and the plan for Cambridge

The plan for Cambridge refers to Michael Gove’s Cambridge 2040 plan, in which he would like to see tens of thousands of homes built to form a new quarter in Cambridge. Gove’s announcement has led to concerns about the coordination between East West Rail and plans to expand Cambridge.

Member departments

The Growth Board consists of the following departments. according to Gareth Davies, MP and Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury:

  • Department for Transport (DfT)

  • Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC)

  • Department for Business & Trade (DBT)

  • Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT)

  • Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA)

It’s notable that the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), with its mission to restore and enhance the environment for the next generation, hasn’t been included.

Our take:

We’re not happy about the Growth Board’s lack of transparency. Nor are we happy about the lasting environmental damage caused by this growth-at-any-cost project across the Oxford-to-Cambridge region.


Jean Prince