Modernising the council to lead 'One Cambridge, Fair for All'.
In April 2024, the then government wrote to all councils in England asking them to produce a productivity plan.
Cambridge City Council’s plan sets out the:
- context that the council operates in
- actions we have taken and are taking to become a more efficient and impactful council, including smarter use of data and digital technology
- things that central government could do to help us and our partners do even more to improve the quality of life of people and communities in Cambridge
Our plan builds on the public engagement we carried out with residents in early 2023, which resulted in Cambridge Rich Picture and the State of the City report.
Local context
- As the fastest growing city economy in the UK, Cambridge is uniquely placed to support the government’s economic growth mission. Over the last 10 years, employment in Greater Cambridge has increased by 2.2% per annum in the region, compared to 1.4% in Great Britain.
- Cambridge is a globally significant innovation hub, with the city’s knowledge-based sector growing by 17% last year. There are over 5,500 knowledge-intensive businesses, which generate over £20 billion per annum, and we are known as Europe’s ‘unicorn’ capital. Our city-region is ranked first in the Global Innovation Index for the intensity of our science and technology cluster and the University of Cambridge contributes £30 billion annually to the UK economy.
- Our fast-growing economy is driven by successful partnerships between academics, business, investors and local government, and we are committed to sustainable and inclusive growth. There is an opportunity to create a place where prosperity grows hand in hand with positive social and environment benefits, and where innovation creates economic opportunity for our local communities and across the UK.
- The council is taking an ambitious approach to sustainable and inclusive economic development and place shaping. Through the Cambridge Civic Quarter project, the council is investing £30 million of its reserves to create a vibrant civic heart for all residents, regenerating the central Market Square, Corn Exchange (cultural venue) and civic buildings (Guildhall).
- We are also working collaboratively with Cambridge University and all 29 independent university Colleges to develop a multi-million pound City Centre Heat Network to provide renewable heating. In the north of the city, we are partnering with Anglian Water to develop a new net-zero district on brown field land to provide 5,600 new homes and additional commercial and research and development (R&D) space.
- The council is curating a city that is positive and progressive. Councillors have adopted a new vision, and the four key priorities set out in our corporate plan are:
- tackling the housing crisis – the council built 330 new council homes directly in 2022/23, which was the highest number of directly delivered homes by any local authority in England, Wales and Scotland. More widely, between 2010/11 and 2020/21, Cambridge delivered 3,100 affordable homes, more than any other city in England on a per resident basis
- climate change and biodiversity - Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) ‘A’ Score, second highest district Council in Climate Emergency UK’s ranking of all local authorities on their climate action, Gold Award from Sustainable Food Cities
- tackling poverty and inequality through an innovative Community Wealth Building approach
- modernising the council and providing a wide range of high-quality essential services to all those who live, work and study in Cambridge, despite the significant financial challenges facing local government across the UK. Our annual report [PDF, 0.6MB] and key performance indicators [PDF, 0.2MB] highlight a range of achievements by the council’s core services provided in 2022/23
- The council itself is reflective of the increasingly diverse population of the city. For example, our new People and Culture Strategy promotes equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), as evidence suggests this is positive for communities and workforce engagement. We have a diverse Cabinet (unusually high proportion of young and female portfolio holders) and our current mayor is the first here of South Asian descent.
- We are committed to engaging and working collaboratively with local communities to shape the future of the city. For example, our recent Cambridge Conversations engagement asked 849 residents what matters most to them. The views of residents, partners and businesses were captured in the Cambridge Rich Picture visualisation of city’s priorities.
- We are engaging residents and local stakeholders on the future of local government in Cambridge.
- The council has committed to modernising its governance arrangements to improve accountability, efficiency and community engagement.
1. Transforming service delivery - changing how we work
- Our Cambridge transformation programme – multi-year programme due to conclude by December 2025. The overall goal is to reshape and redesign the council and services – focusing on:
- financial sustainability - operating more efficiently and effectively within available resources
- changes to how the council operates, including the development of new values and behaviours for staff and a new Target Operating Model (TOM), which sets how we want to work as part of a 21st century council, and changes to how we run services to reflect a purpose led approach to delivery for the residents we serve
- a closer relationship with residents and communities
- a systems approach to working with partners – identifying the council’s role (and the value it can deliver) within the wider public sector ecosystem in Cambridge – reducing duplication of services and ensuring that the system as a whole delivers what local people need
- providing preventative services where the council is best placed to do so – more effective way of working, positive impact on NHS, County and other responsive services
2. Using digital technology and data to improve decision making, service design and use of resources
- Developing a new five-year Digital, Data and Technology Strategy (DDAT) – Kickstarting the process of digitisation and becoming a truly digital council, so that those who want to access services virtually can; looking at how we can use data and technology as an integral part of service delivery, rather than as a bolt on to how we work; and rationalising our IT systems, ensuring that they are efficient, user-friendly and work seamlessly with other systems.
- 3C ICT Review – shared service with Huntingdon District Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council since 2015 – reviewing the council’s contract/relationship with 3C ICT to ensure our ICT services, support and systems are fit for purpose in a 2024 context and are agile enough to respond to changing demands and technology in future.
- AI – piloting an approach through Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) Planning Service project and our innovative “Region of Learning” project, providing digital badging to improve young people’s employability.
- In collaboration with SCDC, Innovate Cambridge and Cambridge University, we will explore the benefits of AI to improve delivery of local government services, which could then be applied across the sector.
- We have developed a State of the City report and dashboard to ensure we have a data-informed shared understanding of Cambridge, its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges, through economic, social and environmental lenses.
3. Improving efficiency to ensure financial stability and sustainability
- The council reviews all its spending on an annual basis as part of the process of setting a balance budget (for further information see 2024/25 Budget-Setting Report). The council also regularly updates its five-year Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) in light of the local context and external factors and the outlook for public sector funding.
- Achieved £4.6 million net revenue savings through efficiencies, increased income and prudent financial management over the last two years, equivalent to 25% of our core spending power.
- Committed to saving £6 million by 2026/27, in excess of 20% per annum of net revenue budget, whilst protecting the services that residents value most.
- Smaller, more strategic senior officer team saving £300,000 per annum; Our Cambridge group/service redesigns to maximise service delivery with reduced budgets.
- Political governance review - more agile, lean and effective decision-making system – replacing a unique hybrid system with Cabinet model, pausing/stopping Area Committees and developing alternative options to build in a resident voice.
- Creating shared services with neighbouring councils since 2015, including shared planning, waste, ICT and legal services.
- Partnership principles (see question 1).
4. What could the government do to help us deliver even more efficiently and effectively?
- The most significant barrier to local productivity is single-year finance settlements, so it is encouraging to see government proposals for multi-year funding agreements. Without a clear indication about funding for multiple years, councils cannot effectively plan and deploy their resources.
- We have also been hampered by the tendency of Whitehall to design and decide policy that affects councils without engaging the council and the sector as fully and as early as it could. This has resulted in initiatives and funds that are more complicated than necessary and that are difficult and, in some cases costly, for councils to implement.
- We would also benefit from much greater flexibility for our council (and all councils) to decide how to raise and spend money locally. Central prescription and ringfencing constrain our ability to allocate our resources effectively.
- We incur unnecessary spending and waste valuable officer time complying with rules, requirements, restrictions and processes imposed by central government and regulators. These include:
- the number of specific, formula-based revenue grants and their separate reporting requirements – it would be much simpler and more efficient to roll all specific grants into a single provision in the Local Government Finance Settlement
- the wide range of separate one-off revenue and capital grant pots with onerous, costly and counter-productive bidding processes
- lack of join-up between central government departments on policy issues including housing, homelessness prevention and asylum dispersal
- lack of join up on requests for information across departments and complicated, inconsistent, and misaligned processes for submitting data returns to central government
- We want to deliver on the incredible potential of the city, including its innovative businesses and institutions, its diversity and highly-skilled population and its natural assets and resources.
- Cambridge can develop ideas and innovations which can be built and manufactured around the UK, from our Innovation Partnership with Manchester, to the close connection Cambridge’s new economy companies have with Bristol, South Wales, the north east and beyond, bringing jobs and shared prosperity to those places.
- We believe we can only realise the local and national benefits that Cambridge can offer through a more collaborative and multi-departmental partnership with central government. This includes:
- establishing a role for democratically elected local politicians in key decisions that affect Cambridge and its residents
- developing an economic plan that is evidence led and which draws on local stakeholders responsible for the city’s success rather by Whitehall
- creating certainty for investors and business by accelerating our proposed Local Plan for up to 57,000 homes and 66,000 jobs by 2040; with additional infrastructure investment it may be feasible create over 100,000 jobs by 2050
- acknowledging that public investment and/or devolved fiscal powers will be necessary to attract private investment to tackle our existing infrastructure deficit and to enable sustainable future growth and placemaking, including health, education, social infrastructure, environmental improvements, and social housing
- ensuring that local people genuinely benefit from this long-term economic, social and environmental project, including through upskilling to enable access to new jobs in construction, retrofitting and other green industries
