The council’s General Fund Budget Setting Report (BSR), which was published yesterday (Thurs), sets out proposals for fresh investment of council reserves and further efficiency measures as the council works to become more productive ahead of the ending of core government grant in 2019.
The report, which will be discussed by councillors on 23 January, proposes allocating a further £100k, on top of the £200k invested in 2016-17, to the Sharing Prosperity Fund which was set up to pay for work focused on alleviating poverty, as part of the council’s Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Proposals to tackle poverty being developed include:
- Helping the lowest income families to reduce fuel and water poverty
- Cookery classes for families with low incomes who have to stretch tight budgets
- Financial literacy work with young people and adults
- Outreach work in health centres serving some of the city’s most disadvantaged people, by Cambridge Citizens Advice Bureau.
As part of the council’s commitment to tackling environmental and sustainability matters, the BSR also proposes investing £250k in work to further reduce the council’s energy bill and reduce its emissions and carbon footprint.
Initiatives proposed include:
- Installing LED lighting and improved boilers and control systems in council buildings
- Upgrading properties with insulation and energy efficient double or secondary glazing
- Installing photovoltaic panels on some council buildings and potentially adding a small combined heat and power station in the Guildhall
- More electric vehicles in the council’s fleet.
Tackling homelessness, using an extra two year £390,000 government grant and addressing poor quality accommodation in some local private sector housing will remain priorities, with plans to extend the Town Hall Lettings Service, which helps small-scale landlords to rent their property to local people in need of a place to live.
The BSR follows on from the council agreeing its Efficiency Plan to 2020 with government in October, which led to confirmation by government of the minimum grant and other support to be given to the council for the next four years.
The Efficiency Plan, which will help to fund the proposals in the BSR, outlines how the council will become even more productive and financially self-sufficient.
It sets out how the council will put resources to work that were previously going to waste to help save £1.7million by 2022, from the council’s annual net budget of approximately £20million.
Initiatives will include:
- Transforming the way the council delivers services by focusing on what is important to services users, doing that well and sharing with neighbouring councils, where possible, to reduce costs and create more resilient teams
- Reducing the number of council offices and reusing other assets. Examples include the sale of Hobson House on St. Andrew’s Street and a new council street cleaning and maintenance base at Cowley Road in north Cambridge
- Major capital investment plans including the redevelopment of the council’s 100 year old Mill Road depot and the rebuilding of Park Street car park with opportunities for more housing on both sites
- Developing new council businesses, including the new vehicle maintenance garage and fleet operation at Waterbeach, and ensuring all services think commercially and explore income generating opportunities
- Investing in technology to improve productivity and reduce costs
- Investing money wisely so it does not sit in bank accounts earning very little but works to generate a better return for Council Tax payers. Since 2014, some £50 million of underused council resources has been freed up, much of it to invest in commercial property assets and to invest in housing via Cambridge City Housing Ltd, generating income for reinvestment while addressing affordable housing need
- Challenging the council’s capital programme to reduce low priority capital commitments by over £10 million (as part of the £50million described above) and ensuring the schemes that do go ahead are well planned and delivered in a timely way
- While welcoming the recent county council decision to fund overnight street lighting, maintained since April at the city council’s expense, continued extra city funding to increase lighting levels after 10pm.
Cllr Richard Robertson, Executive Councillor for Finance and Resources, said: “Our proposals are focused on delivering a balanced budget and achieving our vision of ‘One Cambridge, Fair for All’.
“We continue to face major financial challenges arising from a number of sources, including rapidly reducing government funding, but we will do all that we can to avoid cuts to frontline services and to focus on our priorities, helping those people in greatest need.
“Our strategy is to strengthen the council’s finances by investing our reserves far better and transforming our major sites to enable us to maintain the essential services that all residents are dependent upon. This means investing fresh resources in service transformation to achieve greater efficiency and savings.
“Together, these proposals will help to continue our work to make Cambridge a place where there is opportunity for all, not just the wealthy few.”
The full detail of these General Fund Budget Setting Report proposals will be considered by Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 23 January.
This BSR is complemented by separate plans and funding for housing for the management of the council’s stock of over 7,000 council homes, and plans to supplement the stock by over 500 over the next five years assisted by devolution deal funding.
Notes
The BSR, which includes a Foreword written by Cllr Richard Robertson and Cllr Lewis Herbert, Leader of the Council, is available on the council’s website:http://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=159&MId=3082&Ver=4
The council’s seven top objectives are
- Delivering sustainable prosperity for Cambridge and fair shares for all;
- Tackling the city’s housing crisis and delivering our planning objectives;
- Making Cambridge safer and more inclusive;
- Investing in improving transport;
- Protecting our city’s unique quality of life;
- Protecting essential services and transforming council delivery;
- Tackling climate change, and making Cambridge cleaner and greener.
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