Peterborough’s growth targets are ambitious – we plan to have 20,000 more jobs, 25,000 more homes and 40,000 more people by 2021 than we had in 2001.

Meeting these targets offers an opportunity to transform the city, making it not just bigger but better. Quality – in areas such as landscape, architecture and the provision of facilities – will be key to our success.

For Peterborough’s growth to be truly sustainable we are working in a number of key areas that will deliver real and rapid improvements and major regeneration:

• Sustainable development of the city centre.
  
• Investment in the city’s neighbourhoods and villages to ensure that the whole community benefits from future development.
  
• Re balancing the city’s economy to provide more high-paying, high-skill jobs in a wider range of successful companies and other organisations. We will have a particular focus on growing our business clusters.
  
• Expansion of our education and training facilities to provide the workforce with the skills needed to take up these new employment opportunities. This will extend from pre-school to secondary school and beyond, with a particular emphasis on developing university-level education in the city based around the new Anglia Ruskin University campus development.
  
• A promotional campaign to generate investment, to encourage companies to relocate to the city and to persuade tourists and shoppers to visit.

As you would expect in one of just four Environment Cities in the UK, a great deal of attention is being focused on environmental sustainability.

Our ambition is to become the nation’s ‘environment capital’, showing how it is possible to meet the needs not just of the current generation but also of future generations.

We are aiming to meet the highest standards – or set new ones – in areas such as:

• Using construction techniques and materials which minimise the use of energy and other resources.
  
• Minimising the use of energy and water in new buildings, both domestic and commercial.
  
• Meeting energy demands from renewable resources.
  
• Facilitating the use of public transport, walking and cycling.
  
• Integrating wildlife and human habitats to bring nature right in to the heart of the city.
• Ensuring quality green space in the city centre

We aim to exploit our unique geographic location to allow the city itself to act as a link between the three surrounding nationally important ecosystems – the limestone uplands of ‘John Clare’ country to the west and north, the River Nene Washes to the east and the fens to the south.

Our planning encompasses other aspects of sustainability as well as the natural environment.

We are aiming for social sustainability by ensuring that we do not build ‘dormitory’ housing areas but create vibrant communities well-served by high quality social and other leisure, recreational and cultural facilities within easy reach. We will deliver economic sustainability by creating investment and jobs in a diverse range of enterprises, so that the city is not dependent on a narrow market sector but can respond positively to future economic changes.

Sustainability is not just part of our plan –

it is at the heart of our plan.