City Council Monthly Update August 2026

In this summary:

Cabinet

• Budget 2027/28
• Homelessness and rough sleeping
• Housing development
• Reopening of Parker’s Piece and Quayside public toilets
• Improvements to street cleaning and Public Safety
• Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
• Fleet decarbonisation and Replacement
• Quarterly Performance report Jan to Mar 2026

Planning and development management

• Wolfson Court, Clarkson Road – Deferred
• 25/04442/S73 Cambridge Rugby Union Club – Refused
• 26/00797/FUL 1 Barton Close – approved
• 25/05027/S73 Mayflower House, Manhattan Drive – approved
• 26/01066/REM Land South of Dame Mary Archer Way, Cambridge Biomedical Campus  4000 Discovery Drive – approved
• 23/04643/OUT Former NIAB Site, Huntingdon Road
• Springstead Village, Cherry Hinton 66-bedroom care home
• William James House, Cowley Road
• Darwin Green 2/3 – County Park   

Performance, Assets and Strategy Scrutiny Committee

• Local plan

Full Council

• Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs)
• Update on Development Corporation (DevCo)
• Local Government Review
• Responsibility in new developments
• Declaration of the Rights of the River Cam
• Darwin Nurseries and Farm Shop
• Planning Arrangements

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Cabinet

Budget 2027/28

The first step in the budget setting process is reviewing the overall economic and funding situation. This year the process is much simplified as we received a multi-year settlement last year so we know what central government funds we will receive. The following factors were considered:

• CPI inflation is 3.6% for 2026 calendar year. The previous year’s assumption was 2.6% an increase which resulted in an increase of the five-year savings target of £1m.
• Public Works Loan Board (PWLB – the entity which lends money to the Council) rates are 6.16% compared to the assumed 5.55%
• The Greater Cambridge Development Corporation (DevCo)has been approved and will take some planning powers away from the council. These are likely to be the bigger ones that earn the most fees which will take away income from the council. Also, there are likely to be one-off costs if  staff are made redundant and/or move under TUPE arrangements to the DevCo.
• Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) will have similar one-off transformation costs, in addition to the risk of the effect of staff leaving on service provision
• Business rates retention – the amount that councils are permitted to keep instead of paying to central government – remains uncertain, despite the multi-year settlement. The revaluation has generated significant appeals (which take time to resolve during which it is unknown what rates the council will receive) and the baseline reset has removed all business growth (which we were previously permitted to keep).
• The Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme (EPR) for packaging waste is not generating the income levels expected.

Housing Revenue Account

This is the ring-fenced account for council housing which needs to be kept separate from other council income and expenses. This had an overspend last year of £6.9m mainly due to overspends on repairs and maintenance. This current year includes an extra £1.7m to help with this, but the situation remains difficult.

The business plan assumes that the council will be successful in its bid to Homes England for significant capital funding £96m for new council homes.

With the council in no overall control, there is now a Budget working group that consists of all major party group leaders and finance spokesperson who will feed into the process.

Homelessness and rough sleeping

The new homelessness and rough sleeping strategy was approved. This was scrutinised at the Services, Climate and Communities Scrutiny committee last year. The existing plan has been extended to 2028 to take account of LGR. The main pillars of the strategy are:

• Support those at risk of homelessness to remain in their homes where possible
• Improve access to a range of permanent accommodation 
• Minimise the use of temporary and emergency accommodation
• Improve access to and effectiveness of support services
• Prevent rough sleeping
• Break the cycle of chronic and repeat street homelessness and rough sleeping

The aim of the strategy is to intervene earlier and so prevent a crisis. Those at risk will be identified, and a pilot of prevention support provided which will be evaluated. A future operating model will be formed with the learning from this pilot. Landlords will be consulted and a renewed support package piloted. The Housing debt policy will be reviewed and new ways of resolving debt situations piloted. The process for discharge from prison, hospital and care settings will be reviewed. The high-intensity supported housing provision will be expanded provided funding can be found.

There are many voluntary agencies also working in this field and the council will be working closely with them also.

The full policy is here: https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/documents/s73054/Annex+2+-+Cambridge+City+Local+Homelessness+Action+Plan_7+July.pdf

Housing development

New sites will be developed for new housing at Queens Meadow Phase 2 in Cherry Hinton (12 houses with 2, 3 and 4 bedrooms), the Hawthorns, Haviland Way in King’s Hedges (30 homes), and Horizons, Coldhams Lane. This will cost £37m. Flats privately owned with be compulsorily purchased if no agreement can be reached in a reasonable timescale. There are further small sites at Kendal Way (1 home), Paget Road (4 homes) and St Thomas Road (11 homes) developed by the council directly which are intended to be 100% affordable. All 6 properties form part of the Strategic Partnership bid with Homes England which will bring £96m to fund these developments and more. We will know later this year if we are successful.

Reopening of Parker’s Piece and Quayside public toilets

This was a request from the Liberal Democrats as part of the negotiations to support Katie Thornburrow as Leader at the truncated AGM earlier this year. As many of the toilets will be opened as quickly as possible and for the moment will remain free at Parkers Piece. A visit to Silver Street loos will now cost £1 rather than 40p. Options for payment will be reviewed and officers will produce a plan for the long term viability for these extremely important facilities for the public.

Improvements to street cleaning and Public Safety

The state of the city has been a constant source of complaint which is why it was also part of the Liberal Democrats negotiation. Four temporary staff were agreed to bolster the street cleaning team who are currently stopping work at 4pm. It was thought that temporary staff would be quicker to hire and thus the summer would be covered with the full team. However, it has proved impossible to hire even temporary staff. The long term options are being reviewed and will form part of the budget negotiations.

Two further temporary officers will be recruited to the Public Safety team to focus on identified hotspot areas while the operational demand is reviewed with a potential permanent post being recruited in September.

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)

Many councils already implement a CIL. There has been a public consultation and the cabinet agreed to submit this for independent examination.

The purpose of a CIL is to secure more money from developments to help address the funding deficit for strategic transport infrastructure. S106 planning obligations will still be used to fund localised infrastructure such as schools, surgeries and community centres.

Fleet decarbonisation and Replacement

The council has approximately 120 vehicles providing services such as housing, environmental services, etc. which are past their replacement life. The council will adopt an electric first policy to replace these vehicles on a phased basis.

Quarterly performance report

The report for January to March 2026 was presented. The link to the 34 page document is below.

https://democracy.cambridge.gov.uk/documents/s73049/Cambridge+City+Council+Quarterly+Performance+Report+January+to+March+2026.pdf

Planning and development management

The following planning applications were considered:

Major

Wolfson Court, Clarkson Road – Deferred

Demolition of existing and construction of replacement purpose-built student accommodation, ancillary facilities, landscaping, new pedestrian access from Madingley Road and other associated development. Installation of a temporary construction access from Madingley Road.

Minor applications

25/04442/S73 Cambridge Rugby Union Club – Refused

Their previous application was rejected and they have submitted a revised application. This was a variation to that revised application – to vary condition 4 of ref: 25/00607/FUL (Erection of an aluminium framed building as an extension to the existing rugby clubhouse to accommodate a fitness gym) to read ‘The use hereby permitted shall only operate within the hours of 6am and 9pm Monday to Sunday only and not outside of these times.

26/00797/FUL 1 Barton Close – approved

Change of use for existing 6-bedroom house in multiple occupation (Use Class C4) into an 8 bed, 8 person large HMO (sui generis use) and minor external amendments – part retrospective.

25/05027/S73 Mayflower House, Manhattan Drive – approved

To vary condition 2 (Approved plans) of planning permission 23/02127/FUL (Erection of (i) 8 flats (4 studios, 2 one bed & 2 two bed flats) on the eighth floor on Mayflower House with removal of Electronic Communications Apparatus on the roof to allow an increase in the overall height of the approved eighth-floor extension by approximately 599mm, with all other aspects of the development remaining unchanged. 

26/01066/REM Land South of Dame Mary Archer Way, Cambridge Biomedical Campus  4000 Discovery Drive – approved

Reserved Matters Application (i.e. the details) pursuant to 16/0176/OUT relating to the development of a mixed-use laboratory and office building including associated plant, access, car parking, cycle parking, landscaping, public open space, and other works, and Transport spurs, Energy Demand, EV Charging, 31 On Plot Cycle and Pedestrian Facilities, Car Parking Spaces, 36 Disabled Car Parking Spaces, 37 Cycle Parking Spaces, 39 Ecological Conservation Management Plan, Drainage, Sustainability, Waste, and Landscape.

23/04643/OUT Former NIAB Site, Huntingdon Road

This application was previously approved on the basis that a s106 agreement would be completed. This has failed to happen and therefore the committee have given authority to the Director of Planning to refuse the application if the s106 agreement is not completed by 31 October 2026.

The application is an outline application, i.e. only layout, scale and access arrangements on to Laurence Weaver Road, for the demolition of all site buildings and structures other than Chapter House and erection of buildings for laboratory / office (Class E (g(i)) and (g(ii))) and café use (class E(b)), and associated facilities and infrastructure, along with the relocation of existing facilities serving the retained Chapter House that are currently accessed from Lawrence Weaver Road including refuse storage, vehicle access, car parking and cycle parking.

Pre-application developer briefings were also held for

Springstead Village, Cherry Hinton  

Reserved Matters Application for a 66-bedroom care home.

William James House, Cowley Road

Demolition of existing buildings on site and redevelopment to provide a commercial building(s) of circa 7,000 sqm with floorspace to be used flexibly

Darwin Green 2/3 – County Park   

Reserved Matters Application for a Country Park.

Performance, Assets and Strategy Scrutiny Committee

This was a special meeting of the scrutiny committee which I chair to review the next stage in the local plan. The previous (section 18) consultation laid out various options that the Council was considering for the local plan. The responses have been considered and choices made about what will go into the final plan. This final plan is now about to go into (section19) consultation for people to comment on the updated version of the plan. After that it may be amended again in response to the further responses, but likely only in a minor way, and then will be submitted to Cabinet and Full council for approval to submit to the Planning Inspector in December. They will review this next year and if it passes inspection it will become the new Local Plan.

Issues raised at scrutiny were:

Site allocations:

Cambridge East: to support in principle the alternative transport provisions and internalisation approach (i.e. daily needs of residents such as schools and retail are met within the local community) but request further clarity at the appropriate time on the exact measures to be provided.

North East Cambridge (Hartree): to support the flexibility in the current approach and the provisions to enable this potentially to come forward as a development site.

CBC (Cambridge Biomedical Campus): to ask that public transport provisions to be more explicitly specified in the S/CBC policy.

Climate Change: to support the overall approach and commend the measures on cooling and the mitigation of heat islands and to ask officers to investigate the inclusion of splashpads.

Biodiversity: to support BNG at 20% and commend the UGF/tree canopy provisions.

Wellbeing and Social Inclusion: to support the new policy in place on gambling as requested by the Committee in November 2025 and to support the principle of ‘meanwhile’ use (use of vacant or underutilised premises, sites or spaces on a temporary basis) and the delivery of community centres.

Great Place: to commend the neurodiversity measures referred to in the policy.

Infrastructure & Transport

• to emphasise that infrastructure must come first (be delivered in time with the delivery of development)
• to commend the transport provisions and highlight that transport is key to the success of the plan.
• to recommend that officers continue to work with the CPCA and seek assurance from the Council Leader that she will press the CPCA to deliver the Transport Strategy on time.

Water: to register scrutiny’s view that the water provisions, both fresh and waste water, are fundamental to the success of the plan and request officers continue to seek resolution of key ongoing water issues.

Full Council

Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs)

A petition with more than 500 signatures was received by the Council regarding HMOs. It wanted a) to introduce a 10% HMO threshold within a radius of 100m², and b) introduce article 4 directions in Cambridge which require property owners to seek planning permission to convert and existing home into a small HMO (i.e. 3 – 6 people). Above that, planning permission is already required. In response the council agreed to review the position.

Update on Development Corporation (DevCo)

Government held a consultation on the DevCo. The respondents to the consultation agreed that:

• Infrastructure delivery was slow
• Housing affordability was a critical issue.
• Overall 59% opposed the creating of the DevCo, although within that 67% of private companies supported it.

The Government decided to go ahead and create the DevCo on the basis that the challenges facing the Council required a step change in infrastructure delivery requiring a different scale in coordination, powers and long-term investment.

David Hill has been appointed as the new CEO. The Government has defined the red line boundary as the whole of Greater Cambridge. Further legislation will come in the autumn to define the powers and functions of the DevCo. This will be a critical piece of information on how we will operate in the future. It is yet another indication of the lack of trust in local government by central government.

Local Government Review

The council was held on the day that it was announced that the Government was not making a decision on where the boundaries for the new unitaries in Cambridgeshire would be. This has caused great concern amongst councillors and although we were only asked to note the report, many councillors from all parties either abstained or voted against as a symbolic protest.

The next stages in the LGR process are:

• Preparation of the Structural Change Order (SCO) in autumn 2026 – the Parliamentary legislation that will create the new unitary councils. 
• Approval of the SCO by Parliament in early 2027
• Shadow authority elections in May 2027
• Vesting day on 4 April 2028, at which point all current Councils in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will be abolished and the new unitary councils will begin operating.

Motion: Responsibility in new developments

Motion proposed by the LibDems to clarify who is responsible for issues arising in new developments i.e. road markings, street lighting, upkeep of hedges and open spaces etc. It required the council to

• Work with development companies, management companies and Cambridgeshire County Council to improve transparency and accountability,
• Set up a code of engagement
• Consider mechanisms to ensure residents have access to information
• Ensure visibility of progress on issues
• Set up a publicly accessible source of information for all existing developments on ownership, maintenance responsibilities, adoption status and reporting routes.

The motion was passed with minor amendments from Labour and the Greens.

Motion: Declaration of the Rights of the River Cam

Proposed by the Greens it was passed with amendments from Labour and the LibDems.

This council declares that the River Cam and its tributaries should have the following rights arising from their existence in nature: 

• The right to flow and be free from over-abstraction 
• The right to perform essential functions of flooding, moving sediment, recharging groundwater and sustaining biodiversity 
• The right to be free from pollution 
• The right to feed and be fed by sustainable aquifers 
• The right to native biodiversity 
• The right to restoration 
• The right to maintain connections with other streams and rivers 

There were further comments noting the responsibility for the river is shared also with University colleges, Environment Agency, Natural England, riverbank landowners etc. and that the activities of the Development Corporation and Anglian water will also affect the health of the river. It also noted the precarious state of the Baits Bite and Jesus Green Locks.

Motion: Darwin Nurseries and Farm Shop

Proposed by Labour and passed unamended.

The council expressed its dismay that the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust will stop providing services at the site in April 2028. Operating for about 30 years, the 7.5-acre site off Newmarket Road provides vital therapeutic training, work experience, and community integration for roughly 60 adults with learning disabilities, autism, and mental health needs

MP Pippa Heylings has launched a campaign to stop the closure which you can support here:

https://www.pippaheylings.org.uk/campaigns/save-darwin-nurseries-and-farm-shop?fbclid=IwY2xjawTezvdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFjWTh3d0x1TzNtZ3AzbnBmc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHrCk9-3Lk-aXmNOqZuiZLnl-m8LXvxO0Qkdfx9lRE271Y5aHIwIQbpERezHj_aem_ZCsROpbTLXZQy4Meq-osVw

Motion: Planning Arrangements

Proposed by Your Party and passed with amendment from Labour.

The motion requires the council to keep building more homes, of which at least 50% are affordable on a portfolio basis i.e. across all developments. Rents to be set as follows:

• 10% at social rent: 40-45% of median market rent
• 65% at affordable rent: 60% of median market rent
• 25% at intermediate rent: 80% of median market rent.

For homes funded by Homes England this mix will be changed to

• 60% of homes at social rent
• 40% and intermediate rent.