We want Cambridgeshire to be a great place to call home. We want to make sure we are doing the things that really matter for communities, focusing on the issues that will make a positive difference to people’s lives. We are planning to do this in the face of the most challenging financial pressures ever faced by the Council. We need to make difficult decisions about how we spend taxpayers’ money.
Our politicians have agreed three new priorities for the next year, as the most important things we will do:
- Supporting and protecting people when they need it most.
- Helping people to live independent and healthy lives in their communities.
- Developing our local economy for the benefit of all.
In order to focus on these priorities, we need to fundamentally change the way we do things as a Council and with communities and our partners.
Over the next five years, our commitment is that we will:
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Be a genuinely local council – we want to hand power for decision making, budgets and service provision to the most local level possible.
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Make sure the right services are provided, in the right way – we will only provide services directly when it is clearly better value for the taxpayer that we do it ourselves. We will minimise the energy we use as an organisation and ensure services are provided in a sustainable way.
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Invest in prevention – we will focus on services that help people early on, increasing their independence and choice and helping them to help themselves.
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Work together – we want to continue to work in partnership with other organisations to get the best possible value for money.
In 2011-12, we require £460 million of gross expenditure to provide services to the residents of Cambridgeshire (excluding schools) to address these three priorities. Of this expenditure, 50% will be funded by Council Tax. The following chart shows the areas on which we spent in the last 3 years and where we plan to spend in 2011-12 and 2012-13:
Our Integrated Plan for the next five years was informed by the results of a consultation process which put residents in the place of county councillors and replicated the tough decisions made in this year's budget. The key findings were that, if at all possible, residents would like to see fewer cuts in road maintenance and library services. Both these priorities have been reflected in decisions in our Integrated Plan, with some extra investment to maintain levels of road maintenance, and an intention to avoid library closure through changing the way they work and placing libraries into community ownership.
You can read more about our priorities and ways of working, as well as find details of our budget for the next five years in the full Integrated Plan 2011-12.