Council on track to meet investment target

South Cambridgeshire District Council has claimed it is ahead of schedule with plans to generate at least 25% of the money spent on local services from their own investments by March 2024.

According to the council’s 2020/21 budget papers, the local authority is expecting to generate more than £3.5 million from investments in the next financial year, which will help offset cuts to their funding by central government.

Last year, councillors said that by the end of March 2024 investments would return an income of just over £5 million a year and they now believe they are ahead of schedule to meet that target.

The council’s income from investments is from its property company Ermine Street Housing and business premises recently purchased on Cambridge Science Park and the Colmworth Trade Park in St Neots.

The council’s budget also proposes to invest a further £200,000 in increasing support for local businesses so that villages remain vibrant and new jobs are created close to where people live.

A Zero Carbon Grants scheme launched last summer will also continue in 2020/21 with a boosted £100,000 pot being committed toward community projects to address local carbon emissions and climate change.

The council also plans to invest just under £1.9m transforming its own buildings to cut carbon emissions. The proposed investment would be paid back through savings on energy bills over future years.

‘Local government is completely different to 10 years ago and it is now a necessity that we look beyond money from central government and council tax to deliver high-quality services to local people,’ said South Cambridgeshire’s lead cabinet member for finance, Cllr John Williams.

‘The council is incredibly ambitious, and I could not be happier with how we have risen to the challenge and are ahead of schedule on our pledge to generate 25% of the money we will spend on services from our own investments. If we had not done this we would be seeing cuts to services now.

‘The approach we have taken has seen us fill the gap and protect the services people value whilst also funding new areas of work such as the proposed improvements to mobile wardens in our villages that would help people live happily and safely in their homes for longer,’ added Cllr Williams.

Photo Credit – RonPorter (Pixabay)