The devolution and LG reorganisation hub

This is our year. This is our moment. And I say that because of the strength of partnership that now exists.

None of us can do this individually. It is all about a collective effort.

I just couldn't even begin to imagine doing what I'm doing now. My dream is a reality.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, generally, we've probably got one of the fastest-growing economies of anywhere in the UK.

We need to spread those opportunities from Cambridge to the rest of our region. And so it's about revitalising our city centre and making Peterborough a destination for events and exhibitions.

We're in delivery on a range of really high-profile, exciting projects because of the fantastic collaboration between ourselves and the combined authority.

We've now got a university which is multi-award winning, our station quarter scheme has attracted 48 million pounds of government levelling-up funding, and then our great new youth hub, which has just opened at the Peterborough United ground to support 16 to 24-year-olds to come and get advice, guidance, support, and meet like-minded people.

When the combined authority works with us as a council, we've got insight into local communities, the knowledge, the demographics, the accessibility, the intelligence that we can pass on, and have that shared knowledge and come up with something constructive.

What we then see is a project that will come to life and make sure that Peterborough is not just a stopover, but a destination.

There's been a desire to have a university in Peterborough for over 40 years. And what it took is partnership, it took authorities having that vision of saying, "how do we do things differently?" And also an academic partner saying, we can work with these local authorities. We can make sure that there's a capacity to make this happen. Our model of higher education is what others across the UK are looking at.

I decided that if I wanted to do something with my life, that I had to do it. I had to make that decision. You know, I want to pursue my dreams, and ARU has allowed me to do that. I like being local. It's just a bus ride away. If ARU wasn't here, I wouldn't be where I am.

The university's presence in Peterborough is an amazing example of really good, practical partnership working, delivered, important to note, on time and within budget.

We are one of the eight trailblazers for a youth hub in the country to try and address some of the challenges for under 25s getting into jobs and training. So we launched that last year. It's been really good so far, we've had over 70 people that actually get some really positive impact from attending.

Coming here and having this has allowed me to see that there is potential for me to thrive as such. And maybe I didn't have that much belief in myself before. So it's really opened up some opportunities for me.

The concept of the station quarter scheme is to pivot the station itself into a more obvious natural direction facing the city centre and create a walking and cycling route, greening up the whole environment, and making the experience of arriving in Peterborough, which is a fabulous city, just as fabulous when you get off the train as it is when you arrive in the city heart itself.

I think the mayor and the combined authority are a key element of how you bring all those partners together and we work very hard on those collaboration and partnership arrangements to really accelerate the growth and opportunity for Peterborough.

This rapidly fast growing city is giving opportunities to not just young people, but people all across the patch, irrespective of what their background is.

If we don't all work together, if we don't all collaborate, we're going to get nothing done. And so that's why we're working together to make sure we can drive forward this regeneration project.

This is all about making people healthier, wealthier, and happier.