Local Authority leaders will meet with the CPCA Mayor Paul Bristow to try and digest the results of an eventful summer in Westminster
But before we start, keep an eye on the Cambridge Water Scarcity Group papers.
Above – the Cambridge Water Scarcity Group papers (See here and scroll down)
Combined Authority Board Meeting Papers for 23 September 2026
Item 11 – the Chief Executive’s update covers most of the issues
And it’s a heavier read than usual, although the subheadings help you choose whether to read them or not. Given the length of meeting papers, I generally recommend anyone who is not an obsessive / ‘Guildhall Groupie’ to focus on the issues that interest them, and leave the other things to someone else in the hope that between us all we’ll cover most of the important stuff.
On Westminster-related things, the Chief Executive Rob Bridge highlighted:
- Number 10 North (as part of devolution activities)
- The Greater Cambridge Development Corporation
- The Mayoral Council of England (Chaired by Angela Rayner, the Housing & Local Government Secretary
- The Public Accounts Committee that the Mayor and Mr Bridge gave evidence to earlier in September
- The Commons Business and Trade Committee – Parliament taking an interest in the Combined Authority with senior officers giving evidence
- The Universal Theme Park in Bedfordshire which is not far from the county border – meeting with the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport.
- Education – in particular 16-19 funding given that vocational and technical are now on an equal footing to academic, and not before time
“I thought ministers wanted devolution? What’s with all of the central government meetings?”
Whitehall policy makers have to work out how to do it – not easy given the centralising tendencies of central government!
Other items are covered in Place and Economy, and in Transport
- Local Growth Plan update – this is a new requirment for Combined (soon to be renamed Strategic – ) Authorities
- Strategic Place Partnership – Specifically Peterborough and later on Huntingdon
- Spatial Development Strategies – another new responsibility for Combined/Strategic Authorities as Labour brings back Regional Planning that the Tories scrapped in 2010. (The East of England Regional Plan being scrapped a few months after civil servants and local councils had spent almost a decade working on it!)
- Get Cambs & P’Boro Working – covering youth unemployment and skills shortages, the latter being a never-ending issue
- Youth Guarantee Trailblazer – another government scheme negotiated by the previous Mayor Dr Nik Johnson and being continued through by Mayor Paul Bristow. Have a browse of the Year 2 booklet here.
- Future planning casework ‘call in’ powers for Strategic Authorities, giving Mayors the power to overrule local council planning committees similar to what the Mayor of London can do where a local council is seen to be unnecessarily blocking or holding up applications in mayoral priority areas
- Housing – this covers wider moves to devolve powers and funding from Homes England
- Homelessness – devolution of funding and responsibilities
- Bus fares – reports back from free fares for children over the summer, and the new £2 fare cap for single journeys by bus outside of London which the Government is covering.
- Active Travel England meeting in Cambridgeshire back in July 2026 – a report back
- Digital twin bid – complicated stuff using all things digital and working with the DfT to use live data to improve transport connectivity and traffic management (easier said than done for anyone who has used bus apps before!)
Rewiring the State and what it means for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough – Item 12
Director of Policy Kate McFarlane’s expanded on the Chief Executive’s report by picking out some things to keep an eye on:
- Supporting local leaders to drive growth – noting the wider moves to devolve funding away from national agencies of the state (Quangos) and towards Strategic Authority Mayors in order to strengthen democratic accountability locally. The party political responses to any failures of delivery in strategic authorities across England will be interesting to see – because these will happen. Will ministers take the opportunity to kick failing mayors from opposition parties or will they simply refer MPs and journalists to local institutions?
- Providing control over local tax revenues – keep an eye out on The Budget scheduled for 28th October 2026.
- Developing strong local institutions – I’ll believe it when I see it. Chances are we won’t see these in practice until after Local Government Reorganisation. One of the challenges politicians often have is with failures by their predecessors who have used similar language in the past. Where do you start from when the public you are serving has become distrustful – even cynical? This is a big challenge for the Development Corporation which in effect is inheriting a role currently being done by the Greater Cambridge Partnership. And the GCP took ***over a decade to get a busway of less than 10 miles long through the planning processes***.
- Securing Established Status – this has been secured earlier than expected, which gives the CPCA more powers and freedoms than it had before.
“Anything on trams and light rail?”
No – but I’m tempted to ask the Mayor if he has any plans for establishing any local campaign groups to support his Cambridge light rail manifesto commitment. In the meantime, the LRTA here, and Rail Future East are the groups campaigning for improvements in rail-based transport.
Rail Future East’s September newsletter is now out.
Well this looks like fun!
Above – Rail Future East Magazine – Sept 2026, Front Page
As is often the case, Central Government underestimated the passenger numbers.
“The official estimate was a mere 1,800,000, but we all knew that was absurdly low.
The Treasury sets the formula, which has been shown to be pessimistic time and
time again. Cynics would say it’s because it wants schemes to fail the business
case. Regardless, we need more accurate estimates in future.”
Above – Jerry Alderson of Rail Future East, RFE – Sept 2026, p4
Not everything has gone smoothly
“With frequent train services it is not expected that people will hang around, but the toilets are clearly inadequate and problematic when the cubicle is out of order, as it was on the station’s third day!”
Above – Jerry Alderson
One improvement at a time?
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