Cambridge Biomedical Campus
CLIENT CONTEXT
Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC) sits at the centre of one of Europe’s most productive life sciences clusters. Demand for research, clinical and commercial space is structural and growing, while land supply, housing affordability and infrastructure capacity are tightly constrained. The challenge was to help the occupiers of CBC align the growth ambition of its members with planning reality and long‑term deliverability in an environment where they have limited direct control.
PROCESS
Start Advisory was appointed in a multi-disciplinary team to help the occupiers of CBC build on its previous successes and establish a new growth plan for the next 25 years. The new plan needed to be market focussed, achievable, viable and politically acceptable. Working with CBC partners, we shaped a refreshed Vision to 2050, tested how it could be delivered in economic, planning and operational terms and set out a clear operational plan for delivery.
Our central role in the commission was to test the commercial viability of different scenarios and create a clear development case for growth. This meant working closely with a masterplanning team to create a credible phasing and development programme that would meet occupier needs and anticipated demand pipelines, while also matching the risk appetite of future commercial investors.
We led the strategy and evidence base to support a strategic release of land from the Green Belt through the emerging Local Plan, aligning economic analysis, transport strategy and stakeholder engagement with a clear commercial and viability case. In parallel, we supported the team advising on governance and operating models to support coordinated decision‑making across multiple institutions.
Green Belt land release can be highly emotive and given our specialists skills in urban regeneration, we do not normally promote such proposals. But given the location of CBC at the edge of the city, the committed investment in a new railway station at the site, the generally low levels of amenity and biodiversity in the subject Green Belt area and the constrained nature of Cambridge’s urban area, we were confident that expanding CBC into this part of the Green Belt should be considered to support the continued growth of the city with the least environmental impact.
RESULTS
Cambridge Biomedical Campus was identified as the only location in Greater Cambridge to secure an exceptional Green Belt release to support long‑term growth in the Local Plan. This created the path towards a clear, policy‑backed route for expansion and reinforced the Campus’s position as a globally significant life sciences destination.
“Start Advisory helped us from the early stage of our review, working with us as partners to work out what we needed and how best to achieve it. As a team with limited real estate development and investment experience we were very aware that we didn’t know what we didn’t know or how best to weigh the multiple possible options in front of us.
The Start Advisory team, working closely with others and our own internal leadership group was able to help us navigate a way through by assessing suitable options based on our own risk appetite, level of control and financial resources to give us the best solution to meet our needs. They were able to give us access to specialists advisors in a flexible structure that meant we got what we needed when we needed it.”
– Kristen-Anne Rutter, Executive Director, Cambridge University Health Partners
