Building site Back in July, Cambridge City Council put forward four changes to the law for the Government to consider, all with a common theme, making our local community more sustainable.

Under the terms of the Sustainable Communities Act of 2006, supported by the Liberal Democrat City Council, the government has a duty to consider such ideas from local authority areas.

In Cambridge we have been enthusiastic about this Act for some time and I was delighted when our Full Council voted through my motion supporting it, all part of the campaign to get the government to do so too.

Of the local councils, only the City Council put forward any suggestions. One assumes the Conservatives on the County Council are happy with the way things are! Cambridge City Council involved a whole host of groups and individuals in the process of coming up with ideas, from small pressure groups to businesses, schools and colleges. The ideas were narrowed down to four and I’m pleased to report that the Local Government Association has given us its backing for two of the four:

Enable the City Council to keep all income from council house rents and sales to use to build new sustainable housing in the city

Encourage and achieve higher energy efficiency in buildings.

Here is a copy of the full set of proposals.

The LGA has put together a report on proposals from all councils that have taken part, including the ones it doesn’t support as well as the ones that it does. The next step is for them to negotiate with the Government on how or whether the shortlisted proposals can be implemented.

So we are not home and dry yet but we have passed the first hurdle!

   1 Comment