Cambridge City Council – In Context
In its Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) in 2003-04 the City Council was judged to be ‘Excellent’. In subsequent annual Audit Commission assessments of the Council’s Use of Resources, the Council has achieved the highest score of four in each of the last two years and has had a positive assessment of its Direction of Travel. It is against this background of sound corporate governance and effective service provision that the Council has drawn up its latest improvement plan.
The City Council, whilst always an ambitious council with influence beyond its geographical boundaries, is facing a period of unprecedented change and a substantial work programme to deliver, with our partners, the government’s agenda for growth in the sub-region centred in and around Cambridge. The agenda anticipated that a substantial number of new homes would be built in and around the city over the next few years. In recent months, however, the ‘credit crunch’ and downturn in the general economy have seriously impacted on the timetable for the delivery of the growth agenda, and specifically on the likelihood of achieving the targets for new homes. Currently negotiations with developers are continuing on the development of the major growth sites but it is likely that construction work on the sites will be significantly delayed.
At present only a quarter of Cambridge residents can afford to buy even the cheapest 25% of homes in the city so the Council is taking this opportunity to press for 40% of new homes on eligible sites to be well designed affordable homes. The Council wishes to see sustainable communities developing within the growth areas and has been actively pursuing opportunities for investment in sustainable transport and new community facilities and open spaces. The level of potential contributions from developers towards infrastructure costs however, has also been affected by the economic downturn, with developers seeking to renegotiate their section 106 contributions.
Growth, however, will put pressures on the city’s existing communities and facilities as a sub-regional centre for employment, shopping, leisure and recreation. These opportunities and pressures are reflected in the new Sustainable Community Strategy for the city for the period 2008-2011. Unfortunately though, they have not been recognised by the Government through the Council’s three-year settlement for 2008-2011, which amounts to an increase of just 2% over the three years. This means that the Council will face difficult decisions in prioritising scarce resources to achieve its ambitions.
Working in Partnerships
The City Council has for many years played an active role in partnership working setting up partnerships such as the Greater Cambridge Partnership (the sub regional economic partnership) long before there were statutory requirements to do so. Increasingly, in order to deliver our Medium Term Objectives effectively and to make the most efficient use of our resources, we need to work through and within a wide range of partnerships. The complexities of issues facing the city, such as growth agenda have made effective partnerships all the more essential. They are also key to the development of a successful and relevant Local Area Agreement (LAA) for Cambridgeshire that reflects the City Council’s aspirations for Cambridge as well as the wider needs of the county. The City Council, through its Local Strategic Partnership and the active involvement of officers and members, has sought to make a significant contribution to the development of the LAA and to ‘Cambridgeshire’s Vision’ the countywide Sustainable Community Strategy for 2007-2021.
Our corporate improvement plan includes actions to support the development and effectiveness of partnership working – both the need to work with partners to ensure that our partnerships are ‘fit for purpose’ and to ensure that we ourselves are active and proficient partnership members.
Organisational Development
The next three years represent a continuing period of development and change for the Council. As an organisation we need to ensure that we achieve our aim of being an ‘employer of choice’ and are able to recruit high quality staff who can contribute effectively to our vision for the future of Cambridge. We need to ensure that we have the employment policies, procedures and organisational structures in place to support the management of change and the delivery of our objectives.
Boundary Review
After negotiation with South Cambridgeshire District Council we have agreed a number of boundary changes which we want to achieve. The aim of these is to extend the City's administrative boundary to the urban residential edge, encompassing both the existing built-up area where it currently straddles the boundary and the areas identified for major urban extensions. This will help us to build community identity and provide services in a more consistent way.
The proposals have bee submitted to the Boundary Committee for England. If agreed they could add more than 11,000 households to the City's population when all the sites are built out