The Mayor of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough has called for corporation tax to be slashed to 10%. Delivering the opening keynote presentation at Built Environment Networking’s Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Economic Growth Conference, James Palmer said Cambridge is an attractive destination for international investors but they need stronger tax incentives to locate in the UK. “We need to cut corporation tax to 10% to make us truly competitive: only then will we see companies setting up here in numbers.”

Palmer, who was elected to become the first mayor of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough combined authority in May, also described the government’s proposed 10 to 15-year timescale for delivering its plans to deliver the Oxford to Cambridge growth corridor ‘simply not acceptable’. He said: “We need to deliver these projects much more quickly and identify the route. I’m not going to sit back and accept that 15 years is a sensible timetable to deliver infrastructure.”

He said he was ‘constantly challenging’ the government to improve the delivery of infrastructure. “We should be breaking down barriers to delivering housing and infrastructure more quickly. The Cambridge phenomenon has happened despite political interventions which have in general been negative, constricting development. We have to do our bit but government has to do its bit as well.”

He said that the combined authority would be publishing ‘strong proposals’ for an underground rail in Cambridge ‘shortly’ which would deliver change to this city and the whole of the county: ‘’if we don’t improve infrastructure, we won’t deliver the housing.” The findings of that report were later released showcasing the 2025 vision for a revolutionary underground and overground transport system. You can read more about the announcement here:

https://www.built-environment-networking.com/cambridge-underground-delivered-2025/