💬 “If you’ve frozen Council Tax for 13 years you must have cut services…what services have you cut?”
Answer: None
We haven’t cut services. We started East Cambs Trading Company in 2016, which runs the ever popular Ely Markets, the Parks and Open Spaces Team and Palace Green Homes.
The Markets now make a modest profit, the Parks and Open Spaces Team provide services to other organisations, like schools and housing associations which has reduced the cost of running the Council’s own parks and open spaces, and Palace Green Homes build new homes, usually in association with Community Land Trusts where local people are in charge of the new sites and own the affordable homes which are reserved for local people with the strongest ties to the community. We also build £100k Homes for local people to get started on the property ladder. All this activity has benefited the Council to the tune of £6.27m and helped us to freeze Council Tax for 13 years.
We have zero external borrowing, which means we don’t have to use a single penny of residents’ money on paying debt interest (we are one of only two councils in the country that have no external borrowing). We have a slim management structure. And we have a balanced budget for the next two years.
We still have free parking and free green waste (70% of councils charge for green waste).
Above all we have a fantastic staff team who work tirelessly to save tax payers’ money, not spend it!
Anna Bailey, Leader of East Cambs District Council (Downham Ward)
