The £150m investment in transport schemes that was prioritised in January is just the first element of a huge programme that is expected to see £1billion invested in the Greater Cambridge area over the next 15 years.
A report to the City Deal Assembly which meets tomorrow (6 March) sets out a budget that is being recommended to the Executive Board, the City Deal’s decision-making body, later this month.
The report proposes a number of initiatives including bringing council resources together into a new team to help deliver affordable housing and funding to kick-start work with the universities and businesses on making Cambridge a 21st century smart city.
The Greater Cambridge City Deal is a partnership between Cambridge City Council Cambridgeshire County Council, South Cambridgeshire District Council Cambridge University and the Greater Cambridge Greater Peterborough Local Enterprise Partnership and so far the project has been taken forward by sharing existing council resources.
The first of the City Deal money will become available from government at the beginning of April and this will represent a massive boost to funding for growth in the area. So it is now important that the councils gear up to be able to deliver the wide range of projects that have been promised.
Details of the proposed budget include funding for:
- A housing delivery team to take forward the development of up to 8,000 homes – most of which will be at rents affordable to those on low incomes;
- Kick-starting joint work with the universities and businesses on “smart city” and digital projects that address our transport challenges and support wider economic growth;
- A contribution to the costs of work to attract high quality inward investment to the region, bringing continued economic success and ensuring the right kind of new businesses come here, bringing further jobs and prosperity;
- Independent assessments of the economic impact of the City Deal which is crucial to agreeing with government the release of future tranches of funding totalling up to £400m; and potentially;
- Action to ensure local young people gain the skills needed by local businesses, with Assembly Members being asked to advise on the best way of doing that
- Funding for a core team to provide City Deal leadership and project management team to ensure projects are delivered on time and budget, and ensure further promised Government funding is delivered for Greater Cambridge.
The proposed budget also proposes a small number of officer posts to coordinate the City Deal work given the scale of the extra funding that is being made available and the need to ensure that this is spent well and communities are fully involved as for example, the transport schemes as part of the package are brought forward.
Cllr Lewis Herbert, Chair of the Greater Cambridge City Deal Executive Board, said: “The City Deal is a fantastic opportunity to address each of the challenges to be overcome to maximise the benefits of expected growth in the Greater Cambridge area so it benefits all sections of our local communities.
“It will enable us to radically improve transport in our area and deliver many more much needed affordable homes as well as ensuring Cambridge is at the cutting edge of technology with our ‘Smart City’ work.
“The scale of the new investment in our area is unprecedented and the three councils, the two universities, major local employers and the Local Enterprise Partnership have worked closely to develop the plans so far.
“This is a large and complex programme that will deliver immense benefits for the Greater Cambridge area, so we also need to make sure that there are enough resources available to deliver on our ambitious plans and ensure our communities are fully involved and have a say on major projects as they move forward.
“We are therefore also proposing investing in a small core team that is dedicated to keeping the work on schedule and to continuing the excellent joint working between the councils and our partners in the academic and business communities. We also have our eyes on targets set by government because we will miss out on future funding after 2020 if we don’t match them.”
If the Executive Board approves the report’s recommendations then funding for this budget will be drawn from the three partner councils, as part of their additional contributions that top up Government initial funding of £100 million.
Funding for these initiatives comes from the 2015/16 New Homes Bonus element of each council’s respective budgets. This is funding provided by the government to support growth.
The budget will be reviewed in the autumn to ensure value for money is being achieved and explore whether further spending decisions are required.
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