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15 October 2026

Long Read

The Tory mayor confronting a postcode lottery in opportunity

More powers, stretched colleges and stubborn NEET figures: Can Paul Bristow make devolution deliver?

Jessica Hill

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11 min read
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Paul Bristow
‘We can build shiny buildings, but there’s got to be a plan behind it’

Paul Bristow, mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough combined authority

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Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is a region of extremes. Home to around 934,000 people and one of the world’s leading universities, it also contains communities where young people face some of England’s greatest barriers to education and employment.

For Paul Bristow, the Conservative mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), closing that divide is an economic necessity.

I meet him at Peterborough’s youth employment hub, overlooking the football pitch at Peterborough United’s stadium, where CPCA is busy delivering the government’s youth guarantee.

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