Today (Thursday 29 January), the majority of councillors backed plans to recommend the draft Business Plan and Budget for 2026–29 to Full Council for decision in February.
The Strategy, Resources and Performance Committee also endorsed the new vision for ‘a healthy, fair and sustainable Cambridgeshire’, supported by three ambitions which would shape all future business planning activities.
Councillors scrutinised the proposed 2026-29 Business Plan and Budget, setting out how the council intends to deliver a legal, balanced budget while continuing to invest in vital services across the county.
The draft business plan and budget brings together the Council’s new Strategic Framework, medium term financial strategy, and detailed feedback from residents, and follows scrutiny by the policy and service committees. It outlines how the Council will manage growing demand for services while remaining financially sustainable over the next three years.
The draft Business Plan and Budget includes a number of proposed investments aligned with the Council’s three new ambitions:
Supporting a green and sustainable county through continued delivery of the Council’s Climate Change and Environment Strategy, and an extra £20m of investment in road maintenance on top of Government funding for Cambridgeshire highways.
Enabling full and healthy lives for all, an additional £14.7m of funding to help providers of adult social care in the county to meet ongoing costs, including inflation and to enable them to pay the Real Living Wage to care workers.
Ensuring fairness and opportunity, to help further tackle poverty and support families under pressure, the Council is proposing to invest £1m to sustain holiday meal vouchers for those most in need through to the end of the summer holidays 2026. This will support families as changes linked to the Government’s withdrawal of the Household Support Fund are implemented and use of the new £5m Crisis and Resilience Fund to support a broader range of anti-poverty measures is implemented.
In addition, the draft budget sets out major investment across key services, including £11m to upgrade the Milton and March Household Waste Recycling Centres. Residents will also see major investment in the services families rely on day to day, more school places, stronger support for vulnerable children, and well-resourced local libraries.
The proposals include 3,500 new primary school places and £72m over five years to support secondary schools in Alconbury Weald and North West Cambridge. They also provide £780k a year for the re-opened children’s home in South Cambridgeshire, continued funding for the Families First programme backed by the £6.7m Children’s, Families and Youth Grant, and more than £1.2m for libraries and archives over the next two years.
Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “We are taking a responsible, prudent approach to our finances to ensure we can continue to invest in the services residents rely on most. We are continuing with record levels of spending on highways, we are also putting additional funding into our over-stretched social care services and driving forward our commitments to achieve Net Zero as a Council.
“Our new Strategic Framework sits at the centre of this work. It sets out what matters most for a healthy, fair and sustainable Cambridgeshire, informed by the voices of residents. It will guide the way we plan and allocate resources in the years ahead.
“We continue to face considerable financial challenges, with rising demand across our services and increasing costs, particularly within children’s social care. That’s why our proposals include further investment to support and to help our teams to respond effectively to the needs of our growing population.
“A huge amount of work has gone into these proposals, which enable the council to remain financially sustainable and invest in the work that helps people to live full, healthy lives and benefit from a fair and sustainable future. I am enormously grateful to the staff and councillors who have worked on getting the council budget to this point.”
The council’s reported £6.4m budget gap in December has been fully closed following the announcement of the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2026–29 by Government.
At its meeting in December, members of the Strategy, Resources and Performance Committee began debating the draft business plan and budget. The feedback from all the Council’s January policy and service committees, as well as feedback from our online public consultation and the views of Town and Parish Councils, other local and public authorities, business representatives, and trade unions were heard today.
In our pre-budget engagement exercise, just over 50% of respondents supported an increase in council tax of up to 4.99% to maintain or improve essential services, recognising the current financial pressures faced by the Council.
In a second round of consultation, from December 25 to January 26, residents were asked to share their views on key spending and saving proposals. The majority supported the suggested ways of saving money and reducing costs to children’s services, adults and public health and 71% supported prioritised spending for highways and community services.
Proposals discussed included an increase of council tax by 4.99%, the maximum permitted by Government for county councils. A total 2% of this increase is specifically for adult social care funding. This increase, if approved, would generate around £21million in additional funding and help the Council continue providing the essential services people rely on.
This would mean that for a Band D property, the County Council’s share of Council Tax would increase by £84.78 a year, or £1.63 a week.
At the meeting today, the majority of members at the Strategy, Resources and Performance committee supported its final recommendation to Full Council, which will debate the budget on 10 February.
Today’s draft Business Plan and Budget proposals are available to view on our website, and the committee meeting was streamed live on the Council’s YouTube channel
