Cambridgeshire Matters News

Investing in the county’s highways, adult social care and building new schools prioritised in Cambridgeshire County Council’s Business Plan and Budget proposals

The demand for services, increasing complexity of need, inflation and market failures mean the county council is responding to a £35.1m gap for 2025/26, members were told at Cambridgeshire County Council’s Strategy, Resources and Performance committee on Tuesday (28 January).

Despite these challenges, the council’s proposed plans for the coming year include an investment in highways maintenance, adult social care and building new schools, alongside continuing its journey to achieve net zero targets and responding to climate change. 

Proposals discussed included an increase of council tax by 4.99%, the maximum permitted by Government before a public referendum is needed. A total 2% of this increase is dedicated to adult social care services across the county. This increase, if approved, would generate around £20million in additional funding.

At the meeting on Tuesday, the majority of members at the Strategy, Resources and Performance committee made its final recommendation to Full Council, which will agree the budget on Tuesday 11 February.
The Business Plan and Budget proposals are available to view on our website. The meeting is available to watch on our YouTube channel

Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation (LGR)

People will have seen that the Government announced its devolution plans in December 2024. Cambridgeshire County Council elections will be taking place in May this year, as expected. 

We welcome the opportunities that greater powers and more funding being devolved from Westminster to Cambridgeshire could bring and will work closely with the Mayor and Combined Authority to secure the best outcomes for our communities. Our focus remains on delivering essential services across the whole of Cambridgeshire. 

Visit our website for more information on Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).

Shining a light on lower energy consumption and reduced maintenance costs

From December 2024, our street lighting contractor Balfour Beatty has started work on our countywide street light replacement programme. Over two years, we will be replacing over 47,000 existing streetlights with new LED (light emitting diode) streetlights.

We expect that this will save more than 5,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over the lifetime of the streetlights and cut energy consumption by more than half. The new lights will also reduce maintenance costs and light pollution.

If you have a standard, Cambridgeshire County Council streetlight near you, the light will be replaced within the next two years. In small towns and villages, our contractor is intending to carry out replacements in clusters to minimise any disruption.

The Balfour Beatty website has full details on when the streetlights in your area will be changed, alongside helpful FAQs. You can also visit our dedicated page for more information.

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