At a meeting of Full Council last week (23 February), councillors approved the council’s budget with an additional amendment to increase expenditure by £16k, to a total of £25k per year, to plant more trees in public areas across the city and replace those lost in Storm Doris.
The budget includes plans for fresh investment of council reserves, capital investment in major council sites, efficiency measures, and new projects to tackle poverty and to reduce council energy use.
Initiatives for the year ahead include
- Helping the lowest income families to reduce fuel and water poverty;
- Financial literacy work with young people and adults;
- Extending outreach advice work in areas serving some of the city’s most disadvantaged people, by Cambridge Citizens Advice Bureau;
- Cookery classes for families with low incomes who have to stretch tight budgets;
- Installation of LED lighting and improved boilers and control systems in council buildings;
- Upgrading properties with insulation and energy efficient double or secondary glazing;
- Installation of photovoltaic panels on council buildings and adding a small combined heat and power station in the Guildhall;
- Putting to work resources 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:
o Transforming the way the council delivers services by focusing on what is important to service users, doing that well and sharing with neighbouring councils, where possible, to reduce costs and create more resilient teams;
o 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;
o Investing in technology to improve productivity and reduce costs;
o Investing millions of pounds of surplus council reserves wisely so it does not sit in bank accounts earning very little but works to generate a better return for residents;
o Challenging the council’s capital programme to reduce low priority capital commitments and ensure the schemes that do go ahead are well planned and delivered in a timely way;
o Undertaking major new capital projects to replace Park Street car park, including proposed upper floors with affordable housing, and redevelopment plans for housing at Mill Road depot, a new smaller depot at Cowley Road and an overall reduction in council offices.
Councillors also approved the Housing Revenue Account budget for 2017-18, which sets out how housing services in Cambridge are to be refocused on those people in greatest need, as part of a transformation programme that will come into effect alongside a huge investment in new council homes.
- Tackling homelessness, using an extra two year £390,000 government grant and addressing poor quality accommodation in some local private sector housing by extending the Town Hall Lettings Service, which helps small-scale landlords to rent their property to local people in need of a place to live;
- Building at least 500 new council homes using £70 million, granted by the government as part of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough devolution deal, and the council’s own Right to Buy receipts from council house sales;
- Delivering £1.2million of savings from the council’s housing service for 2017-2018 and recognising the need to make further savings in future years to ensure the council can deliver housing services on a reduced budget. Initiatives are set to include:
o A review of management and staff levels in the Housing and the Estates and Facilities services, with staff to be consulted on restructuring proposals;
o Being clear about the services the council provides, and which repairs tenants are responsible for themselves;
o Exploring options for sharing some housing services with other councils.
The budget has been agreed at a time when the council is working to become more productive ahead of the ending of core government grant in 2019.
Cllr Richard Robertson, Executive Councillor for Finance and Resources, said: “Our balanced budget will enable us to focus on helping those people in greatest need and avoid cuts to frontline services, to achieve our vision of ‘One Cambridge, Fair for All’.
“The budget will put the council on a sound financial footing, in the face of major financial challenges arising from a number of sources, including rapidly reducing government funding. In 2013 we received £5.6m per year in government grant. By 2019 we will receive nothing.
“In the face of this massive cut in support we have been working hard to find savings, run the council more productively, and invest wisely – all with the aim of making ourselves less reliant on government funding.
“Our priorities are tackling poverty, climate change and homelessness. This budget enables us to allocate funding for projects in all these important areas.
“Our goal is to make Cambridge a city where there is opportunity for all, not just the wealthy few and this budget will help us take big strides forward towards achieving that.”
The budget reports are available on the council’s website: http://mgappmh-01/ieListDocuments.aspx?MId=3053&x=1
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