Committee publication · Correspondence · 19 May 2026
Letter from Prologis relating to further information following the Committee's letter on 23 April on UK trade with the US, 6 May 2026
From: Business and Trade Committee
Inquiry: UK trade with the US
Summary
Prologis responds to the Business and Trade Committee's April 2026 inquiry about infrastructure constraints affecting UK–US trade and investment at Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The company identifies wastewater treatment, grid capacity, water supply, transport, and digital infrastructure as critical bottlenecks, and argues that fragmented governance across utility providers, regulators, and departments prevents coordinated resolution. It advocates for a Strategic Growth Company operating at Oxford–Cambridge corridor scale rather than a narrower Development Corporation model.
Key findings
- Wastewater infrastructure is the most pressing immediate constraint on Cambridge Biomedical Campus Phase 2 delivery, compounded by grid capacity, water supply, transport, and digital infrastructure gaps.
- Responsibility for these constraints is fragmented across utility providers, National Highways, Homes England, regulators, and government departments, with no single body aligning infrastructure investment to spatial growth.
- The proposed Cambridge Development Corporation risks adding governance complexity rather than solving infrastructure misalignment; it lacks clarity on powers beyond planning and would not operate at strategic scale.
- Infrastructure systems operate across Oxford–Cambridge corridor and South Midlands functional economic areas, but planning remains tied to administrative council boundaries, creating a strategic mismatch that impedes investment timelines.
- Prologis calls for a dedicated Strategic Growth Company with cross-boundary authority to coordinate utilities, transport, and regulators, plus flexible access to strategic infrastructure funding, to restore investor confidence in UK growth regions.
Tone
CriticalTopics
Key actors
Prologis UK Limited, Rt Hon. Liam Byrne, Business and Trade Select Committee, Office for Investment, HM Treasury, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Greater Cambridge Shared Planning Service, Cambridge Development Corporation
Notable line
“Without addressing this, there is a material risk that increasing governance complexity will continue to act as a constraint on delivery, rather than enabling the Government's growth objectives.”
Key Quotes
“Among these barriers, wastewater infrastructure has emerged as the most pressing and immediate challenge to delivery, requiring urgent resolution to maintain the region's momentum.”
“This has resulted in a significant governance gap, with no single organisation holding ultimate responsibility for aligning infrastructure investment with spatial growth at economic scale.”
“And ultimately, the sustained barriers to development and the obstacles to growth are impacting our confidence in the UK.”
“… the primary constraint on investment is not demand or land supply, but the absence of a single, strategically aligned infrastructure delivery framework operating at functional economic scale.”
Source · parliament.uk record ↗