James Palmer (mayor)
James Palmer is a politician and the first Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, elected as the Conservative candidate on 4 May, 2017. As a former councillor, he was previously leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council between May 2013 and May 2017. He was also a county councillor for the Soham and Fordham Villages electoral division of Cambridgeshire County Council between 2009 and 2017.
Some of Palmer's key priorities since being elected as mayor are the construction of a metro system for Cambridgeshire, including underground tunnelling in Cambridge, upgrading the A47 in Cambridgeshire to dual carriageway, delivering Peterborough's first university with degree-awarding powers and building more affordable homes, including through community land trusts.
Early life
Palmer was born and raised in Soham, Cambridgeshire, into a farming family. He attended Soham schools St Andrews Church of England School and Soham Village College and went on to study at the Cambridgeshire College of Agriculture and Horticulture. He then worked for and ran the family dairy business, H Palmer and Sons, based in Soham.Political career
As a councillor
Standing for The Conservative Party, Palmer was elected as East Cambridgeshire District Councillor for the Soham North ward for the first time in 2007. He was re-elected in 2011 and 2015. He was elected as a Cambridgeshire County Councillor for the first time in 2009, in the Soham and Fordham Villages electoral division. He was re-elected in 2013. He was leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council from May 2013 until his election as Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, when the post became automatically vacant. He also vacated his county councillor role at the same time.As leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, he helped secure the funding for the Ely southern bypass to alleviate congestion in the city. Under his leadership the council also developed plans for £13.5 million leisure centre and a cinema complex for Ely. The new Hive Leisure Centre was opened in May 2018.
He championed community land trusts as an innovative way to deliver affordable rental homes for working people whose circumstances meant they did not qualify for social housing, but were struggling to afford high private rents.
Mayoral election
Then leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council and a Cambridgeshire County Councillor, Palmer announced in December 2016 he would be campaigning to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor and was selected on 21 January 2017 following a hustings event.When he was selected he said: “The new Combined Authority has the opportunity to enhance the lives of the people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough by investment in infrastructure, housing and skills. I am determined that, should I go forward and win the election, my vision of a strong county competing internationally with world renowned centres will be realised…Cambridgeshire and Peterborough must unite as one to provide the perfect location for international business and worldwide investment. Our competition is not Peterborough against Cambridge, but Peterborough and Cambridgeshire against California, Shanghai and Germany. Investment in any part of the county is and will be mutually beneficial.”
In the immediate run-up to the election, in an interview with the Cambridge News, he said he would invest in transport infrastructure to help business growth spread across the whole of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and make job opportunities accessible to more people. He argued that a light rail metro, with underground tunnelling in Cambridge and extending to surrounding towns and business parks would improve people's ability to get around the congested area and open up its opportunities to more people. He also called for upgrades to the A10 and A47 and an extension of the M11 to link Chatteris, March and Peterborough. Palmer said that the right infrastructure would also help bring forward the housing growth Cambridgeshire urgently needed.
Palmer was elected Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough on 4 May 2017 with 88,826 votes, and 56.9% of the final vote. Upon being elected he said: “I am immensely proud to be the first mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and I will do everything I can to make sure everybody is included in the future of this county.”
As Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
Six days after being elected, Mayor Palmer announced plans for his first 100 days in office. That included the roles local council leaders would play in his cabinet and their portfolio responsibilities, as well as announcing two deputy mayors. The plan included commissioning business cases for the dualling of the A47 in Cambridgeshire, and dualling the A10 between Cambridge and Ely. The plan also included launching feasibility studies for a light rail and underground system for Cambridge and the extension of the M11 north of the city to the A47. The advancement of the next phase of the University of Peterborough, including funding, was also announced.In November 2017, Palmer joined other regional mayors to call for the UK government to allow further devolution to mayoral combined authorities. That included public services like skills, training and apprenticeships, as well as fiscal devolution to gain some control over taxes and revenues generated within combined authority areas. Palmer is currently exploring the potential for ‘Devolution 2’ to bring the health and adult social care budget for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough under the control of the combined authority, with a view to saving money and improving service delivery. Palmer is also pressing for the ability to set up Mayoral Development Corporations, a power already held by the Tees Valley Combined Authority.
After concerns surfaced about the way the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership was being run, resulting in the Government holding back funding, Palmer wrote an open letter in September 2017 saying the organisation was no longer able to fulfil its purpose of supporting the area's business community. Palmer would later support its merging to with the Combined Authority, where it was proposed to operate under an independent Business Board. The Business Board, he said, “will involve the public and private sectors working together closely will provide a powerful business voice for Greater Cambridgeshire and Peterborough."
Among Palmer's key priorities as Mayor has been to progress with work on delivering a metro system in Cambridgeshire, with underground tunnelling in Cambridge city centre. Due to the significant estimated cost, the Mayor is looking at financing through land value cap and tax increment financing and significant investment from the private sector. The uplift in value of land caused by new transport links is capped, with a proportion of that value going to finance the infrastructure scheme itself.
In March 2018 Palmer announced he would be supporting the A47 Alliance campaign for full dualling of the trunk road from the A1 near Peterborough to Lowestoft in Suffolk. The dualling of the A10 from Cambridge to Ely, and the eventual extension of the M11 north to the A47 to better connect the north and south of Cambridgeshire are also ongoing road priorities. His rail priorities include establishing a rail link for Wisbech, building a station at Soham and delivering an interim station at Cambridge South by 2021, years ahead of the proposed 2025-27 timescales for the full station, as proposed via East-West Rail.
Palmer argues that better transport links will also help ease the housing crisis because people will be able to live and work in a greater variety of locations. Palmer also wants to significantly accelerate the delivery of affordable housing across the area. He is heavily in favour of community land trusts, a relatively new idea, to help build more affordable homes across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Since his election, Palmer has also campaigned to reform the region's education system and for further devolution from Westminster.