The new strategy, launched in a Green Paper yesterday (Monday) by the Business Minister, Greg Clarke, says that themes which are central to the Cambridge and wider Cambridgeshire economies are also critical for the post Brexit UK economy.
Councillor Herbert said: "Cambridge may be a small city but it plays a crucial role in the UK economy with our research opening up many new and world leading products and services, creating manufacturing and delivery in key industrial centres across Britain and products sold across the planet.
"The dynamic, research-led international Cambridge economy faces major challenges from the Government's Brexit strategy. We need significant investment to avoid damage if Theresa May's government plans to take Britain out of both the single market and the EU customs union and to restrict businesses from hiring skilled staff from outside the UK. We need a city by city trade assessment to achieve the best possible trade deal for Cambridge and other cities given the importance of what is at risk."
Councillor Herbert added: "Cambridge representatives will be meeting tomorrow with the Fast Growth Cities network which we helped set up because Cambridge shares the same opportunities and challenges with other key UK innovation centres like Oxford and Milton Keynes.
"We want to see further measures to make life affordable for lower income workers in Cambridge who are vital to the Greater Cambridge economy but are struggling to stay here with the high cost of either renting or buying a home in the city. If the government is serious about this industrial strategy it needs to back the talk with more devolved powers to Cambridgeshire and greater investment to balance the infrastructure in high growth cities like Cambridge. We welcome the investment in further technical education and skills for young people, especially in science and maths, but it is set against a backdrop of significant cuts in schools and FE colleges which hasn't been addressed by the promise of an inadequate £170 million. Skills are at the heart of giving every local resident and every local teenager the best possible opportunity to work in our hugely successful Cambridge based businesses and organisations, secure rewarding careers and share in local prosperity, and we want to see far more investment and commitment from the Government on this."
Detail on the Green Paper's Industrial Strategy can be found here
Some information on the Faster Growth Cities Network can be found here