Agenda and minutes

The Leader of the Council welcomed members of Cabinet and those in attendance to the first meeting of Cambridge City Council’s Cabinet.

The Leader set out some of the key aspects of the Cabinet moving forward and welcomed attendance at the meeting from the Chair’s of the two Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s.

Members of Cabinet introduced themselves, whilst outlining their portfolio and areas of responsibility.

There were no apologies for absence received.

There were no declarations of interest received.

The minutes of the Executive meeting held on 10 February 2025 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

There were no public questions received for the meeting.

Cabinet is being asked to approve revoking the existing Smoke Control Areas (SCAs) which only covers a limited area of the city, and implement a single, city-wide SCA, excluding permanent residential moored vessels at this time. These changes are expected to contribute to a sustained reduction in PM_2.5 emissions, leading to improved air quality and better health outcomes for everyone living in or visiting Cambridge.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Action and Environment introduced the report to Cabinet. The purpose of the report was to seek approval to revoke the existing Smoke Control Areas (SCAs) and implement a single, city-wide SCA, excluding permanent residential moored vessels.

The Cabinet Member responded to questions from Cabinet and Councillors in attendance as follows:

i)     With regards to assessing indoor stoves, this could be done by measuring around the indoor air, however it was difficult to know how much this would cost to roll-out.

ii)    Smokeless fuels were readily available to purchase for those on the boats, although these would be more expensive than traditional fuels.

iii)  Previous work had been done to look at electric charge points along the riverbank, although nothing was carried out it could be looked at in the future.

iv)  Solar panels would be beneficial to those on the boats, however it would not be enough to solve their heating and hot water needs.

v)    There was no plan to ban wood burning stoves, they needed to be Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) approved and these could be purchased online or from local suppliers.

vi)  There were still some risks to burning fuels, even smokeless, within a closed space.

vii)Smokeless fuels were more expensive, however this needed to weighed against risk to health.

viii)                 Following wide public consultation, including with the boaters, there were a number of responses from the boaters who relied on wood stove burning for heating and hot water. Removing this access to them without a full solution was deemed inappropriate at this time.

ix)  There was to be a public education campaign, it was believed that most residents would be happy to follow the new guidelines. In the first instance if there were reports of indoor burning then the team would work with the household to educate on the dangers of doing so. If they failed to comply fixed penalty notices could be issued.

x)    Air quality was regularly tested across Cambridge, officers would be able to see if this policy was making a difference.

xi)  Scrutiny could request that a review was presented to their committee at a later date.

xii)It was now illegal to sell non-compliant fuels.

xiii)                 There were unlikely to be signs put up, rather the Council would look to use other channels to educate residents.

xiv)                The Council would be looking at ways of supporting the boaters move to smokeless burning, so that they could be included in the city-wide smoke control area.

xv)                  A DEFRA compliant stove could burn any dry wood. Those available commercially would have to be legally compliant.

xvi)                Any communications would clearly outline what was compliant. This could include Open Door magazine and regular articles being published.

Cabinet resolved (unanimous) to:

Approve revoking the existing Smoke Control Areas (SCAs) and implementing a single, city-wide SCA, excluding permanent residential moored vessels.

Approval for the tendering and award of contract(s) to deliver energy efficiency and associated maintenance works to Council homes.

The Cabinet Member for Climate Action & Environment introduced the report. The report sought approval for the procurement and the award of a new contract(s) to support the continued delivery of the Council’s housing energy efficiency (retrofit) programme, which contributes to achieving the objectives set out in the Council’s Climate Change Strategy 2021– 2026.

The Cabinet Member responded to questions from the Cabinet and Councillors as follows:

i)     It was important to work with residents whose homes were being proposed to be worked on. There was expertise in this area as the Council had already retrofitted around 200 homes.

ii)    The Council monitored works that had been completed to see if there had been improvements to the energy efficiency of the homes.

iii)  There were many ways to measure whether the efficiency had improved, including looking at EPC ratings, as well as looking at the fabric of homes, for example insulating homes was one way to show improvements in efficiency.

iv)  Surveys were carried out pre and post changes to gather the views of residents.

v)    Each property would have a tailored retrofit programme, depending on the needs of the property.

vi)  The new team would also be looking at how the retrofit programme could be rolled out at scale across the city.

vii)As with any tenders those that apply would need to meet the requirements set out in the Council’s procurement rules.

viii)                 The contract had the potential to create newly skilled and well-paid jobs for people to take on in the city.

ix)  Overall, there were a number of benefits to retrofitting, including having better quality homes for residents, whilst also reducing the costs to the Council to keep the homes energy efficient.

x)    Including leaseholders was a new part of the contract, this enabled them to be included when there were works to be done for example on leaseholder flats.

Cabinet resolved (unanimous) to:

Approve the issue of tenders and, following the evaluation of tenders, authorise the Director of Economy and Place to award a contract(s) to a contractor(s) to deliver energy efficiency (retrofit) and associated maintenance works to Council Housing for three years from 2026-29, with an option to extend for one or more periods up to a maximum of two years.

Update on bid submission process and next stages (healthy eating and physical activity; weight management) 

The Cabinet Member for Safety, Wellbeing and Homelessness update the Cabinet and confirmed a final decision would be presented to the meeting in July.

Cabinet resolved (unanimous) to note the verbal update on Public Health Contract for Tier 1 & 2 Services.