Cambridge Labour has today published its annual city report, ahead of its manifesto launch next week.

Highlights include:

• Awarding £1.7 million in grants to community and voluntary groups. This includes over £300,000 to the Cambridge and District Citizens’ Advice Service to help them provide free legal, debt and money advice to local people.
• Initiating an ambitious retrofitting programme including £3.2 million scheme to retrofit 150 1930s solid wall council homes to energy rating ‘B’, and a £5 million pilot to retrofit 50 homes to net zero carbon.
• Planting 594 trees in 2021, plus 269 Free Trees for Babies, 91 trees under the Neighbourhood Canopy Campaign, 260 trees on Logan’s Meadow Nature Reserve, 35 on Paradise Nature Reserve and 600 in East Chesterton’s Tiny Forest
• Exceeding targets for building new council homes, with 542 completed or started on site, including over 500 by 2021, 12 months ahead of schedule, with plans for a further 1000 by 2031.
• Tackling digital poverty by funding groups such as Cambridge Online, helping to get over 700 households online and giving 500 of those a digital device.

The City report sets out key milestones achieved over the past 12 months in each of Labour’s priorities for Cambridge:

• Tackling the climate and biodiversity emergencies and planning for a more sustainable city
• Tackling poverty and and promoting food and fuel justice
• Building a new generation of council houses
• Protecting essential services
• Tacking inequality and promoting diversity.

Councillor Anna Smith, Leader of the Labour Group on the City Council, welcomed the City report:

“Last year in our manifesto we promised to work tirelessly to tackle the climate and biodiversity emergencies, to address poverty and inequality, to build council homes, help the homeless, and maintain our core services in the face of Tory cuts. We have set out for our residents in this report exactly how we are delivering for them across each of our areas. I am delighted to present this annual report from your Labour city councillors, my first as Council Leader, in which we can proudly say we have delivered across each of our manifesto areas.”

She continued:

“Tackling climate change and protecting and enhancing biodiversity is central to our vision and as this report shows, we have delivered across a variety of these areas. We were particularly pleased to have been ranked this year, amongst the top 10% of all local authorities nationally for our work on our climate actions. 

We have also worked hard to tackle poverty and inequality, building more new council homes, retrofitting existing properties and reducing homelessness, as well as delivering services despite a decade of underfunding and cuts by central government. But we are under no illusions of the scale of the challenges facing our residents in the years ahead because of the climate and cost of living crises. It’s only by voting Labour on May 5th that you can ensure you have a Labour team which are committed to meeting the needs of our residents during these difficult times.”

You can read the full report here.