Our Business Plan 2019-2024

We will support businesses of all sizes, including rural enterprise and farming, to help create new jobs and opportunities near to where people live.

We plan to focus on:

• Making it easy to do business in South Cambridgeshire
• Supporting growth in the area
• Creating a single point of contact for businesses into the Council
• Making the planning process easier for businesses
• Working more closely with business to ensure we understand and meet their needs
• Helping small and growing businesses access work space
• Identifying and addressing the skills needed by local businesses
• Creating more jobs by welcoming businesses to South Cambridgeshire
• Supporting and promoting the local visitor economy
• Working with partners to improve transport links between where people live and work
• Working with partners to improve rural broadband and connectivity
• Understanding and supporting businesses through Brexit

Our focus will be on building vibrant and healthy communities with a range of homes people can genuinely afford to live in. Our communities will have the right facilities and services and be places where people love to live, not just groups of houses.

We plan to focus on:

• Delivering a range of high quality new homes across the district
• Doubling the current rate we are building Council houses
• Working with developers to speed up the delivery of new homes
• Supporting people to build their own homes, including on land we own
• Building thriving communities where people can live, work and play
• Making sure developments have good walking and cycling routes and public transport links
• Beginning the process to create our next plan for delivering jobs and high-quality homes
• Working closely with residents and developers to design vibrant and healthy places to live
• Helping villages create and adopt plans to shape their future
• Encouraging more people to participate in active and healthy lifestyles
• Preventing homelessness and providing support for vulnerable people
• Supporting people in receipt of Universal Credit to manage their finances
• Working with national, regional and local partners to support the needs of refugees and asylum seekers

We will put the environment at the centre of everything we do to create a cleaner, greener future for our communities.

We plan to focus on:

• Increasing the amount of green energy generated locally
• Improving the energy efficiency of our premises and Council houses
• Investing in green energy initiatives
• Raising the environmental standards of new homes
• Maintaining and improving air quality
• Making sure new developments are green
• Working with partners to provide environmentally friendly transport
• Supporting and promoting community transport
• Ensuring the proposed East West rail line fully considers the environment
• Tackling fly tipping
• Reducing the amount of waste produced
• Increasing the amount and quality of recycling
• Using more environmentally friendly alternatives to avoidable single use plastics in our offices
• Helping businesses and schools to use more environmentally friendly alternatives to avoidable single use plastics

We will provide our customers with the high-quality services that we would expect ourselves, always strive to reduce costs, build on what we are good at to generate our own income and make decisions in a transparent, open and inclusive way.

We plan to focus on:  

• Improving customer service
• Generating our own income to invest in services for local people
• Keeping our costs low
• Making the best use of our premises and services to generate an income
• Becoming an employer of choice, including for those with disabilities, to help retain, develop and attract staff
• Developing and supporting Councillors to ensure that they can best serve their communities
• Resolving issues and complaints raised by our customers
• Making it easy to access services and carry out tasks through our website
• Introducing live web-streaming of Council meetings
• Supporting and celebrating volunteer groups that benefit our communities