8035 Measuring Impact, Managing Change: How should the form of growth in the Oxford - Cambridge Growth Arc positively respond to the historic environment? - AWARD

In the March 2016 Budget the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) was asked to investigate the potential infrastructure needs and economic case for maximising the benefits of the Oxford - Milton Keynes - Cambridge knowledge-based cluster and make recommendations to Government. The NIC believed that growth could be accommodated without removing land from the Green Belt or affecting the natural environment. The historic environment was not considered in the report, which instead focused on natural environment and the potential for the 'environmental net gain' methodology to deliver overall benefits for the environment .

This project seeks to redress this imbalance and develop a programme of work, and related products, that document and illustrate the significance and value of heritage assets, places, and landscapes in the Growth Arc. The applied outcomes from this work will enable planners, developers and all levels of government, to take the historic environment into account, at an early stage, and help avoid or minimise conflicts, and reduce costs, that might otherwise emerge unforeseen at later stages in the delivery of development schemes as part of the Growth Arc plan.