Cllr Lewis Herbert, Leader of the Council, met with local business people at the Guildhall to outline the council’s budget challenges and its plans to 2020 and beyond, by which time the government’s core grant to the council will have ended.
He also shared the council’s priorities on devolution, including joined up decision making by Cambridgeshire councils and building more affordable housing for rent.
The council faces a number of challenges in maintaining and improving services for residents, businesses and visitors while supporting the balanced growth of the local economy. This support for the economy includes involvement in the three council City Deal, and the proposed devolution deal for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which is to be decided by councils including at a city council meeting next Tuesday.
At the business event, Cllr Herbert expanded on the Efficiency Plan which was part of the council’s recently published Medium Term Financial Strategy. This sets out the council’s strategy for finding savings of £2.2m in the next five years to balance its budget.
Among the initiatives outlined in the Council’s Efficiency Plan, highlighted by Cllr Herbert were:
- Improving how efficiently services are provided, while protecting services essential to residents, and protecting disadvantaged people in our community
- Investing in technology to improve services and response to residents and businesses, and reduce costs
- Reviewing how council offices and buildings are used
- Investigating more sharing of services with neighbouring councils
The council’s strategy also proposes using existing reserves of money to invest a further £20m in commercial property. This would mean that since 2014, £50m of council reserves will have been reallocated from low interest bank accounts in order to protect services through investing in property and affordable rent housing. This is totally new income for the council, reducing the need for service cuts the council would otherwise have to make.
Cllr Lewis Herbert, Leader of the Council and Executive Councillor for Strategy & Transformation, said: “This event was a great opportunity to talk to people from Cambridge’s business community about the city’s prospects and the council’s finances, and to listen to their issues and how we can work together for the benefit of the whole community in the future.
“Since 2014, our challenge has been to deliver much the same services with less funding and for a growing population. We have had to be innovative in redesigning our services and reinvesting unused financial resources while protecting those residents need most. Our committed staff are playing a vital part in that transformation while continuing to deliver all seasons the high quality essential services the community rightly expects.
“Cambridge’s thriving ideas-led business community can play an important part in helping the council achieve our goals over the next few years, while the council is also committed to helping local businesses succeed and grow.
“I also made the point to local businesses that the council currently keeps only £6 million out of nearly £110 million in Cambridge business rates we collect every year. Rather than sending the lion’s share to London, we want to be managing these funds locally as a future part of devolution for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
“Local decisions deliver better results, and it needs to be reinvested here to tackle the challenges of a growing economy and ensure all sections of our community share in the city’s and the county’s prosperity.”
The council’s Medium-term Financial Strategy (MTFS) reviewed the council’s financial position since its budget was set in February. It described the savings needed, where the council will look for those savings and new issues emerging that need to be considered in preparing a budget for 2017-18. The financial strategy sets out how the council must save £2.2million by 2022 from its annual net budget of approximately £20million.
This year, the MTFS was accompanied by an Efficiency Plan, as required by government, in order to secure the multi-year funding settlement. It was approved by councillors at Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 10 October.
Reports presented to council committees are available on the council’s website: http://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/ieDocHome.aspx
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