Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has approved its spending plans from 2025/26, funding improvements to transport, skills and business growth.
Separate to this, the Mayor’s budget was also approved and confirmed that the Mayoral precept portion of council tax bills will be frozen for 2025/26.
At yesterday’s Combined Authority Board meeting (Jan 22), the Mayor’s Budget, including the precept for 2025/26, was presented by Mayor Dr Nik Johnson, with the precept remaining at £36 per year for a Band D household.
The precept is used to fund 53 bus routes across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, around 80% of which are up and running, with the remainder planned to follow this Spring.
The Board then considered and approved the Combined Authority’s main 2025/26 Budget, Corporate Strategy, and the Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) outlining spending from 2025 to 2029.
The Budget and MTFP set out how the Combined Authority’s £328m capital programme and £333m revenue budgets over the period 2025-2029 will deliver its strategy and priority projects, including in transport, skills, business support and growth.
Included in the approved budget is the extension of the £2 bus fare cap to 30 June 2025, moving to a £2.50 fare cap from July to December 2025. This aims to maintain affordable and accessible travel, reduce road congestion, and ease cost-of-living pressures.
The Budget and MTFP will support the delivery of the ambitions and priorities of the Mayor and the Combined Authority’s guiding Corporate Strategy. An update to the Corporate Strategy was also approved by the Board at the meeting.
It will ensure spending focuses on initiatives that directly benefit residents and businesses, and balancing affordability with ambition.
Those spending plans also support the wider role of the Combined Authority to drive growth in the region in support of the Government’s plans for national economic renewal. The Combined Authority’s investments and initiatives aim to further the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region’s globally competitive innovation economy and further cement its status as a net contributor to the Exchequer.
Mayor Dr Nik Johnson said: “Whether it’s keeping the £2 bus fare cap to make travel affordable, equipping people with skills for tomorrow’s jobs, or investing in a future that helps lessen the impact of climate change, our spending plans are about supporting our communities and ensuring they thrive.”
The Budget and MTFP were initially presented to the Board in November 2024, followed by a consultation period. The feedback from the consultation has been incorporated into the final plan.
Key areas of spending aligned to Corporate Strategy priorities include:
Improving Connectivity
– Funding to reform the entire bus system, with the Mayor to make a decision on whether to introduce franchising early next month. The Combined Authority also received £10.2m Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) funding from Government to support better services.
– Extension of the Tiger bus pass giving £1 fares for under-25s beyond May 2025, subject to bus operator agreements.
– Peterborough Station Quarter – £42 million to deliver improvements in and around Peterborough’s rail station, using Government funds.
– £5.3m in local funding to top up £3.5m from Active Travel England for active travel initiatives.
Achieving Good Growth
– Developing a ten-year Local Growth Plan, in partnership with Government, to drive forward key industrial sectors like life sciences and advanced manufacturing to power the economy.
– Supporting local businesses to grow via a dedicated Growth Hub; creating global business opportunities through our Inward Investment Team; helping link learners and people retraining to local employers in need of new skills through a skills brokerage service, and a £9.5 million Business and Social Investment Fund helping our third sector and social enterprises to grow.
– Investment of about £26m across the MTFP period to 2029 to support business growth and inward investment through the development of a Strategic Innovation and Investment Growth Fund.
Ambitious Skills and Employment Opportunities
– Funding for programmes to inspire more young people into careers that can transform their life chances, including £5m funding from Government for the Youth Guarantee trailblazer project for 16-21-year-olds.
– Tackling the inequalities in accessing further (FE) and higher education (HE) that hold back life chances and progress.
– Continuing to deliver the Adult Skills Funding agenda (previously called Adult Education Budget), worth an estimated £52 million over the next four years.
Enabling Resilient Communities
– Funding for a Climate Action Plan and Local Nature Recovery Strategy, aiming to support efforts to mitigate climate change and help nature to thrive.
– £11.9m capital over the next three years to deliver interventions to mitigate climate change from low carbon heating in schools, to supporting the electrification of waste vehicles, to a bidding fund for small capital projects.
An amendment to the transport part of the budget was approved during the Combined Authority Board meeting, enabling an additional £313,000 to be invested to further support road maintenance and improve local roads across the region.
