Why I worry about Cambridge.

I was born down Mill Road in 1977 (yes, I know I don’t look that old). My first home was in rented accommodation just outside of town, and it wasn’t until my Dad became very ill that we were rehomed into council accommodation, which gave our family some security following his death a few months later.

At aged 6, I was then part of a single parent family and we didn’t have a lot. With no other close relatives nearby, we relied on community support, such as the local church who were wonderful in times of need.

I came out of school with 9 GCSEs. Two Bs and the rest Cs. I’d done OK, so it was off to Long Road Sixth Form College I went.

I learnt to drive and passed my test, but without a family car, I still relied on my bike to get around. After I had two bikes stolen, it wasn't easy. We lived out in the villages and buses ‘into town’ were every two hours.

But it was just after my A’ Levels that I had finally saved enough money to buy my own car.

I’d passed all three A’ Levels with Bs across the board. This was before the A*, so a B was half decent. My mum had just been diagnosed with a rare tumour and, without a clear prognosis, I canned my place at university and opted to stay at home and work. I could always get another place a year later?

I didn’t. Following major surgery, my Mum recovered well. I was enjoying earning money from my factory job and, with the independence to get around in my car, my late teens were much the same as my friends’, minus the higher education.

There was a bit snobbery over degrees back then. There was a firm expectation that when you leave the sixth form colleges, you go to Uni. And if you didn’t have a clear direction of what you wanted to do next, you’d end up in, what was often criticised as a dead-end job.

My mum was devastated that I worked in a factory, citing that I was “so much better than this”. I excelled at my job and, mixing with different people during the day and spending every evening in the pub gave me the confidence to talk to many different people from all walks of life.

At 20, I left home. I was taking home ￡120-150 per week and topped it up with all the overtime possible, often working 50–60-hour weeks. I rented a room for ￡30 a week. It was pretty grim, but I could walk to work and walk to the pub and that was pretty much life.

At 21, I took my first sunny holiday and that was the start of my love for travel. It felt like an escape as soon as I walked into an airport. I was nearly always pleased to be home but I always longed for the next trip.

Money was going to be tight if I wanted more holidays but I was determined. I found another factory job with a slightly higher hourly pay to subsidise my newfound love. But this one involved 12-hour shifts working in the freezing cold. I was one of only three women on the shop floor. It was heavy, dirty work and I was always cold and exhausted. Once they announced that we would rotate two weeks of nights and two weeks of days I immediately started to apply for other jobs.

The Wellcome Sanger Institute , then named ‘The Sanger Centre’ needed someone to work in their Stores. I had an interview on a Friday and just over a week later, I started.

I LOVED IT. I was in and out of labs all day, moving equipment, chemicals and gases for the likes of Professor Allan Bradley , Sir John Sulston, Dr John McCafferty , Professor Sir Mike Stratton and many other world-famous scientists. I had no idea how important their labs and research was. They were always friendly towards me and that was all that mattered. ‘The Sanger’ was a special place where, no matter your background or level of academia, everyone was valued and there were plenty of opportunities for progression, no matter who you were.

I was there when ‘we’ sequenced the human genome. I was there when John Sulston was knighted and a few years' later, he went on to win The Nobel Prize . Although I didn’t understand some of the things that happened during my time there, I felt very lucky to be ‘part of something’ and even as a tiny cog in the wheel, my shifting around of centrifuges, -70c freezers and Nitrogen dewars was essential to all of this success. And I felt appreciated.

I was there for four and a half years and the skills I acquired were invaluable. I could now use a computer confidently; I understood the supply chain. I even understood (some of) Genomics!

Always in two minds whether to leave the ‘good ship Sanger’, I wanted a job where I didn’t have to do manual work, so I went to work for a Telecoms company where I was responsible for procuring equipment and coordinating it for installation. It was a better salary, but I didn’t enjoy the culture.

After a year, I moved across to the world of Flooring, where I was responsible for ordering stock, giving technical support within the trade. I even learnt accounts and when I finally left, I was doing the bookkeeping for the company.

Over 7 years later and back in 2012, I ‘stumbled upon’ Recruitment. Working within Science and Technology, I seemed to be in my comfort zone. The rest is history. This is where I have found my confidence, pushed myself into many a situation out of my comfort zone and finally realised ‘I can’. I'm thankful to everyone who gave me those early opportunities.

I’m still living in Cambridge. I’m working in Science and Technology and though, often feeling like an imposter with no degree, somehow, I’ve ended up here and you're all stuck with me.

If it wasn’t for somewhere like ‘The Sanger’, I would most likely still be working on a production line.

You might say I was fortunate not to stay in what some said was a “dead end job”, but I’ve never thought that I was “better than that”, as my mum had told me I was.

I’ve never been a snob and I have the highest of respect for anyone and everyone who works for minimum wage because I know the grind. And there are more than a few very intelligent people who have a lot to offer.

So, what worries me about Cambridge and what's my career got to do with it?

People like me, 30 years ago.

Young people who, through no fault of their own, don’t stumble across opportunities. People who didn’t thrive at school. People who can’t afford to move out. People who can’t afford driving lessons and to buy a car. People who can’t get out of rundown areas with little opportunity.

If you’re one of those people, I see you and I hear you.

Here are some of our city’s biggest problems:

Our young people can’t afford to leave home. Cambridge’s population is currently around 150,000 but according to recent economic development estimates, the projected population for 2031 is?180,000. Average house prices in Cambridge are now over ￡500,000. Private rents are among the highest in the UK as well, leaving many residents priced out of the city. Homelessness is on the rise as you can see from all the people sitting in shop doorways; however, homelessness is not always visible.

From April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, the Cambridge Food Bank experienced?19,769 visits, reflecting a 32% increase compared to the previous year and a 90% rise from pre-pandemic levels.

In Cambridge the inequality in life expectancy between the most and least deprived people is around 12 years. Take that into Fenland and Peterborough and the statistics get even more scary compared to neighbouring South Cambridgeshire.

Our young people can't afford cars! We desperately need a local, affordable transportation system that actually works. If we can better connect our villages to the city, we can create more opportunities. We also need to care more about our connections with Peterborough and Fenland before we worry about our international connections with San Francisco, etc.

We need to stop exploiting people by making them work for minimum wage.? Pay our cleaners, gardeners, bus drivers, street cleaners fairly and treat them fairly. These are the people we are relying on in order for our city to grow. These are the people who keep our city looking beautiful, so that our tourists always leave happy.

If you think there’s a talent shortage now, don’t think it’s going to improve. Quite the opposite. Our growing tech companies also need to treat their technicians as they do their engineers. Stop telling people they ‘need a degree’. Upskill and help them develop. You need these people. Remunerate them fairly and you will retain them.

We need to:

Bridge the gap between our University and Businesses with charities and social enterprises if we are going to drive economic and social impact.

If you're not familiar with the terms ESG and CSR, you need to speak to Rachel Hales and, not only get involved, but Get Synergised .

This is the responsible way to do business.

Rachel encourages companies to work alongside charities for all sorts of benefits, including to nurture talent and recognise the thousands of people (like me) who just needed a break and an opportunity.

Educate businesses to invest in Learning and Development.

Remember Who We Are and Who We Were. Cambridge was a market town that had a university. ‘We’ were only granted city charter in 1951. We need to take ownership for our territory and preserve what we love about it. It’s important for our history and future to keep our university’s traditions, but for 'Town and Gown' to link arms.

We have some of the smartest people in the world, here. Why not apply research to local socioeconomic issues and come up with ways to tackle this ‘two-class’ Cambridge where poverty sits across the street from privilege?

Open our eyes. Our businesses and the privileged have an obligation to recognise the blind spots and bubbles.

Give a voice to all. Growth should be for all and not just for some. Who is benefitting from the growth? Is it a case of the rich getting richer and the poor…..?

Chat GPT was not used to write this article.