Budget 2025-26

Open for comments from Wednesday 23 October to Wednesday 4 December 2024.

The council has been working for a number of years to transform and modernise how it operates. Through the ‘Our Cambridge’ transformation programme we have already improved the way services are delivered, while also finding significant savings.

We currently spend £97.2 million per year to deliver services in Cambridge (of which £26.2 million is received from Government and passed directly to Housing Benefit recipients). Due to factors largely outside our control, these operating costs are rising.

These operating costs are paid for mainly from the income we generate from fees and charges, Council Tax and Business Rates, commercial property rent, and Government grants. This income is not increasing in line with the increase in costs, and it is not sustainable for the council’s expenditure to be higher than its income year after year.

We therefore need to take action to reduce the budget gap. The council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) sets out an initial commitment to reduce the council’s annual net expenditure by £6 million by 1 April 2026.

Because the council’s finances have been well managed to date, we have time to take a measured approach to finding savings. We will continue to focus on modernising and finding efficiencies to bring down costs and, through our Community Wealth Building work, help voluntary organisations, charities and social enterprises to address pressing community needs.

We have identified that £2.5 million per year could be saved by making further changes to the council’s organisational structure – this work is underway.

A further £3.5 million per year could be saved by making changes to council services, such as making changes to some of the discretionary services that we offer or charges for some services. 

This survey relates to the £3.5 million which could be saved by increasing fees and charges for council services and, as a last resort, making changes to some of the discretionary services we offer.

We remain absolutely committed to delivering exemplary mandatory services, and funding and supporting those services that we, and our communities, hold sacrosanct. For example, we are committed to our discretionary £1.2 million Community Grants programme, which supports voluntary and community organisations that help residents in the greatest need. It supports larger organisations, such as Citizens Advice, and smaller organisations, all of which reduce social and economic inequality. 

The council charges users for several of its services. This is an important source of income, bringing in around £23 million every year. Without this income, many services would have to stop. We could increase fees and charges in some areas, or start charging for services we currently provide for free. Some council services must be provided free of charge by law, whilst for some others the council has no control over how much is charged (for example planning application fees, which are set by central government).

We want to understand people’s views on the services we provide and how we could make changes to help balance our budget for the next financial year (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026) and beyond.

Services provided by Cambridge City Council

We provide a wide range of services to Cambridge residents including:  

• benefits and housing advice
• community development and community centres
• council housing and homelessness support
• council tax and business rates collection
• economic development
• planning for sustainable development and planning applications
• public and environmental health
• household waste collection
• parks and open spaces
• sports and leisure facilities

The council provides services to 14 wards identified in our ward map.

The council’s priorities are set out in our vision for Cambridge.

Some services in the city of Cambridge are provided by Cambridgeshire County Council (for example maintenance of the highways and social care for children and adults), the health service (including GPs and dentists), or other bodies. This consultation is not about those services. 

Have your say

Please submit your views by completing our online survey by 11.59pm on Wednesday 4 December 2024.

To request the survey in another format please call 01223 457000.

Next steps

• Your responses to our survey will be summarised and reported to councillors. Your responses will inform our thinking on budget choices and service priorities as we finalise our budget for 2025/26.
• The budget will be discussed at a meeting of the Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 10 February 2025, and a decision will be made on the final budget for 2025/26 at the Council meeting on 24 February 2025. 
• We will publicise what has been decided after that meeting. 
• Your responses will also shape the development of high-level budget proposals for 2026/27 and future years.