Opinion: ‘Great news for Peterborough’s exciting future’

The good news for Peterborough keeps coming!

This week brought more ‘levelling up’ money for our city, this time for young people and schools.

It might be a cliché, but it’s also true – our most important asset is our young people, who deserve the best start in life.

They deserve a good school. They deserve the right support. They deserve the chance to go as far as their talents and hard work should take them.

Down in Westminster, I seize every opportunity going to push for more action on education. The Government has listened. Peterborough will be a new Education Investment Area (EIA).

That’s not just a title and acronym.

For example, we all know that schools are only as good as their headteachers and staff.

Becoming an EIA means money to make retention payments, helping attract and keep the best teachers and school leadership teams.

It means supporting those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and their families and caregivers, with respite care.

The City Council should get £30 million over the next three years to set up more vital respite placements.

It means Peterborough could be prioritised for a new specialist sixth form school. This would give more of our talented children from disadvantaged backgrounds 
access to the highest standard of education.

That’s crucial for their university and employment chances.

It’s levelling up in every sense; not just bricks and mortar, through regeneration, but action to make this relevant to people’s lives.

A £560 million ‘national youth guarantee’ will provide all young people with access to clubs, activities, adventures away from home and volunteering opportunities.

There is support for adults too. More than 200,000 additional free, flexible training places will enable adults to get the skills needed to secure new careers.

The Educational Investment Area could be the most important thing I have helped to achieve in Peterborough. It has the potential to be transformational.

That’s what ‘levelling up’ is about. That’s what the millions for our new university and regeneration were about.

This Government sees the potential in Peterborough and is putting in the money to make it happen. Already, that investment is paying off.

This week also brought the news that ARU Peterborough has reached a partnership agreement with Photocentric, the city’s fantastic, world-leading LCD 3D printers.

Photocentric will be the anchor tenant at the university’s new £16.7m Manufacturing and Materials Research and Development Centre. It places them at the heart of the ARU Peterborough project.

The days are already counting down to this September, when the main teaching building opens its doors to the first students.

The second phase is hot on its heels. The advanced R&D building, with three floors of research space for Photocentric and others, should be completed by December.

It’s hugely exciting.

The opportunities for young people in Peterborough are about to rocket.

Graduates in Electronics and Robotics, Mechatronics, and Manufacturing Engineering will be qualified to go straight into well-paid, local jobs.

I know there are still sceptics out there, but this latest news is proof that ours is not just any university.

ARU Peterborough is a technical, STEM-based, industry-partnering, advanced-research university. The whole city will benefit.

Shouting about Peterborough down in Westminster is working.

I am going to keep on doing it.