Lucy Frazer MP and senior representatives from Cambridgeshire County Council; Leader of the Council Cllr Steve Count, Chief Executive Gillian Beasley, and Deputy Chief Executive and CFO Chris Malyon, met with, Housing, Communities and Local Government Minister, Rishi Sunak MP to discuss the financial challenges that Cambridgeshire County Council face given their current funding.
The Local Government Minister sought the views of the Council leadership team on what they want to see in a new funding formula.
Lucy said, “I am very grateful to Rishi for offering this meeting to Steve, Gillian, Chris and myself. Our meeting was extremely positive. Rishi listened attentively to the concerns expressed and acknowledged the entrepreneurial spirit of Cambridgeshire County Council, praising their highly efficient operations. Rishi was sympathetic to, and very much aware of the challenges of rurality and took note of the Council leadership team’s call for a new fairer funding formula that is not based on historic data but reflects changing demographics and properly supports our high-growth region.”
The findings of the current consultation on fairer funding will lead to a new system in 2020 to 2021.
Despite being the fastest growing county in the UK, Cambridgeshire remains comparatively poorly funded.
Cllr Steve Count, Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council asked, “How can it be fair that Cambridgeshire residents are short changed by £75 million per year compared to those living in many London Boroughs? We are a highly efficient council, transforming our services so that our pounds go further, but we are also the fastest growing county in the country, with unprecedented rising demands for our services across the board.”
The Minister acknowledged the Council’s highly efficient operations, praising the shared service agreements between Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and identifying Cambridgeshire County Council as an example of good practice.
The Council leadership team also presented feedback from other Cambridgeshire MPs whom they had liaised with ahead of the meeting with Mr Sunak.
The Council will continue to seek opportunities during the fair funding review to press for a new dynamic funding formula that reflects current cost drivers and provides adequate stability and support.