City Council Update August 2025

In this update: Councillor allowances, new scrutiny committee, folk festival, council housing status, finance outturn and look at next year, pre-application planning presentations by AstraZeneca and Cambridge South, planning applications approved.

30 June Civic affairs

There were two items on the agenda of Civic Affairs: amendment of the members allowances, and an update on the internal audit programme.

Councillor’s allowances

The amendments to the allowances consisted of 3 items:

1. special responsibility allowance (SRA) for the Leader of the Council was increased
2. The maximum number of SRAs that any one councillor could receive, currently limited to one under the rules as recommended by the independent remuneration panel (IRP), was increased to three.
3. Removal of the allowance paid by the City Council to councillors sitting on the CPCA Scrutiny and Audit committees.

This is always a contentious issue which is why it is usually referred to the IRP who do a regular report on the work done and amounts paid. The LibDems wanted to stick to this independent recommendation but were overruled.

Internal audit

New global internal audit standards have been issued and the council is adapting its practice accordingly. The internal audit opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness on the Council’s internal control, governance and risk manage arrangements is that reasonable assurance can be provided.

1 July Services, Climate and Communities (SCC) Overview and Scrutiny Committee

New committee, future agenda

This was the first meeting of the SCC scrutiny committee following a change of governance system formally voted on in Full Council in May and I have been appointed as Chair. Previously, all reports came to the relevant scrutiny committee where they were scrutinised, before the executive councillor formally made the decision. Now they come, if requested by the Scrutiny Committee, to one of two scrutiny committees.

Since this was the first one, the committee had a brief discussion about what this committee did and how we should conduct ourselves. At the end we also discussed what should be on the agenda going forward.

It was agreed that the Chair (opposition) and Vice-Chair (ruling group) would have a discussion with the relevant heads of department to understand what areas would be good to scrutinise, and what projects were underway or coming up that might need scrutiny.

Folk Festival

This was the main item on the agenda but because the council is still in the process of getting the new system up and running, no papers were available and we only had a preliminary update so it was not possible to have a normal scrutiny of the item which was very unsatisfactory. More details emerged in the cabinet meeting two weeks later (See below).

15 July Cabinet

This was the second meeting of the Cabinet and it had a very full agenda. All 10 members of the cabinet attended.

Cabinet: Housing

The main theme of the meeting was housing:

• Stock condition Survey: There is a requirement to inspect council housing to check their condition to ensure that; they meet the decent homes standard, are warm and safe, are in a good state of repair and also to maintain accurate, up-to-date data on their status. The council manages over 7600 houses and so needs to inspect at least 1500 houses a year. This has not been happening satisfactorily and so the council will now appoint an external service provider to do this service for them.

To give an idea of the difficulties, part of the problem in the past has been staff reporting that they were refused entry to the residence. However, it turns out that they arrived during the day and the tenant was merely at work.

• The annual customer feedback report was presented which reports on all complaints (and compliments) received by the council. This year, 56% of all complaints related to housing (repairs, advice services, development etc.) (47% in the previous 2 years).
• The housing performance report was also presented. This showed that rent was being collected on time and arrears stood at 3%. Similarly, the loss of rent due to residences standing empty waiting for new tenants was also 3%. All houses had a gas safety certificate and most had other safety checks properly carried out. However, only 86% had fire safety checks carried out and this was acknowledged as being an issue. The council was concentrating on the high risk areas and thus the lower risk areas were being addressed at a later date.
• The number of damp and mould cases reported during 2024 was 789 and there were 224 live cases at the end of May 2025. The council’s response is to carry out a mould wash (temporary measure) or treatment (more permanent solution). They will also be hiring a surveyor to find out the causes of the mould and are generally preparing for the implementation of Awab’s Law.
• The new build update showed the new council dwellings being constructed. Cabinet members were delighted that the 1000^th council house had been built. Given the length of the waiting list for council housing and the amount of building going on around Cambridge this might strike you as pathetically low. However, in the climate of right to buy and the general difficulty of building houses, this is an achievement and Cambridge is in the top tier of housebuilding councils in the country.
• The Budget outturn report for 2024/25 showed a overspend of £582k on the use of walking watches at multiple sites, required because of the fire risks identified.

Cabinet: Finance items

• The budget outturn report 2024/25 was presented and showed at net underspend of £3.7m which was mainly related to extra interest income earned (£2.9m) as a result of high interest rates and later spending on capital projects resulting in higher cash balances. This will be transferred to the civic quarter reserve for the refurbishment of Market Square, the Corn Exchange and the Guildhall.

Some large items of under- and overspends. Underspends include, higher than anticipated parking income, lower IT costs due to new cost-sharing arrangements, lots of development applications resulting in higher planning application fees. Overspends include waste and recycling costs being higher following a retender of the contract, garage services which look after the council’s vehicles e.g. waste collection trucks, insurance excesses payable following fires on council properties, and the crematorium which made a loss again.

Nearly half of the cost of capital projects have been deferred to next year but this is mainly items that will complete in the next few months

• Budget setting context for 2026/27. The budget setting process for next year i.e. starting in April 2026 has already started. The report outlines the current view of the risks and this is a very early stage assessment.

Every year, the council rolls forward its income and expenses at the anticipated rates of increase for each item e.g inflation or other more appropriate measure for that item. This results in a budget gap i.e. a higher cost base than anticipated income. The anticipated budget gap to 2030/31 is £7.1m, of which £0.75m relates to next year which means the council has to find that level of savings.

The big items for next year according to the report are:

• The cost following the waste reform
• The reformation of local government funding following the fair funding review.

Cabinet: Development

There were 2 items:

• The response to the consultation by the County Council on its Works order on CSET the busway from the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC) to a new travel hub on the A11 near the junction with Babraham Road. There are a number of concerns such a bio-diversity but the council anticipates that these will be resolved prior to finalisation of the plans.
• The top two floors of Grafton East will be sold to enable the development of this site to proceed.

Cabinet: Folk Festival

This has suffered financial losses, which according to the report commissioned from external consultants, resulted from:

• Inadequate programming
• Poor marketing
• Timing clash with other festivals

As, you will know, the festival was paused this year to enable a review to take place. The recommendation is to have a reduced two day open-air event at Cherry Hinton Hall with two medium sized stages, together with a number of events inside dispersed across the city. There was a great deal of discussion but this proposal was approved.

Cabinet: Routine items

• The shared services contract for IT was renewed, noting there was an exit clause in the event of a local government reorganisation.
• Some small s106 projects were approved i.e. to spend money received from local developments.

16 July Joint development management committee

The committee considered the response to proposals from government on the reformation of Planning Committees. These were mainly:

• a national scheme of delegation i.e. certain applications would automatically go to officers for decision
• Size and composition of planning committees
• Mandatory training for councillors on the committee.

Developer pre-application presentations were made for:

1. Astra Zeneca for a new conference centre building.
2. Cambridge South station public toilets which will not be available to the public without a train ticket, contrary to expectations. Network Rail and Greater Anglia were urged to reconsider although there was no planning requirement for this to happen.

17 July. There was a further pre-application developer presentation on Ekin Road in the north of the City.

21 July Licensing

The committee considered an application for a premises licence on Devonshire Road.

23 July Planning

The planning committee considered the following applications:

1. The Paddocks, Cherry Hinton Road – approved

This application was to replace the old commercial buildings with modern similar versions.

2. Owlstone Croft (traffic management plan and air quality and dust management plan) – approved

3. 12-34 Fanshawe Road – approved.

This is for the temporary conversion of one block of the new development into a sales office which will be converted back to residential when development is finished.

4. Land at Newbury Farm – approved

This is also for the temporary conversion of one block into a sales office which will be turned back into residential at the end of the build.

24 July Full Council

Full council approved:

• The 4-day week for those services that are shared with South Cambridgeshire District Council
• Received an update on the local government reorganisation and approved a motion stating that Cambridge City considers that the option where City and South Cambs form a single unitary is the best, but will continue to work on all options with the other councils.
• The items from civic affairs (members allowances and the financial outturn report) were brought, as required by the constitution, and approved.
• The following motions were approved:
  • LibDem motion on the development of Arbury Court as amended by Labour
  • Green motion on the danger of failure of Jesus Lock and Baits Bite Lock as amended by Labour.