Record spending on roads, thousands of extra school places and support for vulnerable residents underpin Cambridgeshire County Council’s ambitious budget, approved by a majority of Councillors today.
The council will also deliver improvements residents can see and feel, from award winning climate leadership to well‑resourced local libraries and upgraded recycling facilities.
A majority of Councillors also approved the new vision for “a healthy, fair and sustainable Cambridgeshire,” setting the direction for a bolder, brighter county in challenging times. This vision is driven by three key ambitions that will guide the council’s future business planning and the delivery of improvements for communities, for residents of all ages, to parents and carers, road users, and those facing cost-of-living pressures.
By approving the 2026–29 Business Plan and Budget, Councillors have approved a legal, balanced budget that also drives investment for vital services that communities say matter most to them.
The nearly £1.3 billion Business and Budget Plan includes a number of investments aligned with the council’s three new ambitions:
Supporting a green and sustainable county
To improve day to day journeys for drivers, cyclists and bus users, it has allocated an additional £20m for highway maintenance, on top of Government funding, to provide safer and more reliable roads across Cambridgeshire.
The council will also continue to provide leadership and deliver its Climate Change and Environment Strategy.
Enabling full and healthy lives for all
To support older people, adults with disabilities and families, who rely on care every day, the council is allocating £14.7m of additional funding for adult social care providers. This will help them to manage rising costs and ensure care workers are paid the Real Living Wage, improving stability and quality for those who depend on care workers for their support.
Ensuring fairness and opportunity
To help families under pressure from the cost-of-living crisis, the council is prioritising £1m to continue holiday meal vouchers for the children most in need, through to the end of summer 2026. As the Government withdraws the Household Support Fund, the council will also use its new £5m Crisis and Resilience Fund to provide a wider range of anti-poverty measures, offering practical support to households facing financial challenges.
In addition, aligned to the vision and ambitions, 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 plan will create 3,500 new primary school places and invest £72 million over five years to increase secondary school places, including at Alconbury Weald and North‑West Cambridge. It also includes £780,000 a year to run a children’s residential home in South Cambridgeshire, as well as continued funding for the Families First programme, an early‑intervention project that helps keep more families together and is supported by the £6.7 million Children’s, Families and Youth Grant. In addition, more than £1.2 million will be invested in libraries and archives over the next two years.
Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, said: “This is the first council budget delivered by the new administration elected last May, and we want it to be an ambitious one – a budget that begins to build a healthy, fair and sustainable Cambridgeshire. We have taken a responsible and prudent approach so we can invest in the vital services residents rely on most, even though this has been the most difficult budget to balance in more than four years as Leader.
“Rising costs in children’s and adults’ social care and in special educational needs are putting enormous pressure on our finances, and these statutory services for our most vulnerable residents now account for by far the largest part of our budget. While these national pressures continue and government remains silent on how councils should be funded more fairly, we are still managing to invest in key priorities.
“We know thousands of people depend on our roads and paths every day and residents tell us repeatedly that highways are their top concern. They tell us on social media, through our annual Quality of Life Survey, at the pub, in the street and at the school gate. That is why we are continuing record levels of investment in maintenance, alongside additional support for overstretched social care, continued funding for free school meal vouchers, and work to drive forward our commitments to achieve Net Zero as a Council.
“This is our battle plan for a bolder, brighter and more resilient Cambridgeshire during challenging times, and it is just the start. These proposals will help the council remain financially sustainable while enabling people to live full, healthy lives and share in a fair and sustainable future. I am enormously grateful to the officers and councillors who have worked so hard to bring the budget to this point.
“We will continue to challenge Government to recognise they are short-changing the communities of Cambridgeshire and to provide the right level of funding for services that our residents deserve.”
The majority of councillors at Full Council backed the Business and Budget plans.
The plans discussed included an increase of council tax by 4.99%, the maximum permitted by Government for county councils, as is the case in nearly all councils across England, and the level assumed by Government in setting its grant allocations. A total 2% of this increase is specifically for adult social care funding. The 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.
