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The new Combined Authority for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – and why your vote in May’s landmark election matters




Leader of the Council at Cambridge City Council and City Deal Chairman Councillor Lewis Herbert. Picture: Keith Heppell
Leader of the Council at Cambridge City Council and City Deal Chairman Councillor Lewis Herbert. Picture: Keith Heppell

What’s the deal with the devolution revolution?

Residents in Cambridge and across the area will have a second election decision this May, with a vote for a Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor on the same day as the county council elections.

All the main political parties will be fielding candidates for mayor, and at least one independent will be running too.

Labour members across the area will decide their party’s candidate by postal vote, ending February 3. In last year’s Police and Crime Commissioner elections, the vote was a close-run thing on the same geography, with a narrow 53 per cent Conservative majority to Labour’s 47 per cent, and it could again be a run-off between these two in 2017.

The 2017 vote, like that 2016 election, includes the ‘supplementary vote’ system, where voters get a second vote, contributing to the close result between more than 175,000 voters a year ago.

Cambridgeshire councils have for several years been discussing opportunities for extra devolution of powers from Government and, just as importantly, more effective local partnership working, because together the seven councils can achieve more for residents and our communities.

Labour-led Cambridge City Council was the only council out of 23 across the East region to stand against a three-county East Anglian devolution deal offered by ministers early last year because we and our Local Enterprise Partnership thought a far better deal could be negotiated and that the right geography was much smaller. We also saw that as the best way to share the future benefits of Cambridge growth.

Why should parts of Cambridgeshire be so disadvantaged, when there is the opportunity to create more future jobs, build more rail-connected housing and improve bus routes serving rural Cambridgeshire? We could be transforming areas of the county needing investment and give our people real alternatives to recently rapidly rising house prices in areas like Cambridge.

The devolution deal negotiated with Whitehall is summarised in detail at www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/devolution and includes the following projects:

■ A new £20million annual fund for the next 30 years (£600million) to support economic growth, development of local infrastructure and jobs.

■ £170 million for affordable housing, including £100 million for affordable rental and shared ownership – particularly in response to housing issues in South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City. There is a proposed specific £70million fund to meet housing needs in Cambridge which the city council has indicated would be spent on new council housing.

■ Supporting delivery of Wisbech Garden Town and the Wisbech-Cambridge rail connection.

■ Providing new homes across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, including affordable homes in Greater Cambridge.

■ Transport infrastructure improvements such as A14/A142 junction and upgrades to the A10 and the A47 as well as Ely North Junction. Also, it would support development at Wyton and St Neots. ■ Rail improvements, including a new station at Soham, new rolling stock, improved King’s Lynn, Cambridge, London rail.

■ Investment in a Peterborough University with degree-awarding powers.

■ A local integrated job service working alongside the Department for Work and Pensions.

■ Co-designing with Government a National Work and Health Programme focused on those with a health condition or disability, as well as the long-term employed.

■ Integrating local health and social care resources to provide better outcomes for residents.

■ Devolved skills and apprenticeship budget to give more opportunities to our young people.

■ Working with Government to secure a Peterborough Enterprise Zone, attracting investment from business leading to more and better-quality jobs for residents.

■ Working with Government on the continued regeneration of Peterborough city centre.

■ This proposal to be the first in a series of proposals which devolve more funding and powers from Government to this area.

Locally, we have an affordable housing crisis in Cambridge, and at the centre of Cambridge City Council’s devolution efforts was winning £70 million to build over 500 extra council houses for affordable rent by 2022, along with a £100million deal for around 2,000 extra housing association rental and affordable purchase homes across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough by then too.

The earlier City Deal agreed by the Coalition Government and then Liberal Democrat and Conservative-run local councils had no additional resources for housing and we needed to put that right.

However you use your two votes in May’s mayoral elections, there is a lot at stake and you will be getting plenty of alternate information when the elections get going.

It is over to you. Choose who you think will do the best job of mayor and help add extra capacity to address the challenges that will complement the City Deal on transport and skills, help us to test Government’s commitment to further devolution and open up greater opportunities not just for fast-growth Cambridge but for the whole county and Peterborough.



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