08:07 Wednesday 4th June 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
[P]AUL STAINTON: Two weeks ago now Cambridge saw Red for the first time in eighteen years. The City Council one of Ed Miliband’s gains at the local elections, there weren’t many. And today the new Labour Leader of the Council Lewis Herbert has unveiled his Masterplan for the city. Describing Cambridge’s fate as a tale of two cities, Labour has decided to wage a war on poverty, in a bid to close the gap between the rich and the poor. Lewis Herbert is with us now. Morning Lewis.
LEWIS HERBERT: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Just describe to us how you see Cambridge then.
LEWIS HERBERT: Well it’s a hugely prosperous city with great opportunities, and councils have to play their part, particularly in delivering more affordable housing and addressing congestion. Because we effectively are already gridlocked too often. But underlying that we’ve got wider issues that there are areas of the city that have been neglected, and we really do have disparity. Just to give you one statistic, the life expectancy in the poorest, or the least affluent parts of the city for men is 8.7 years lower, 10.5 years lower for women. So we have a disparity, and it’s part of the City Council’s job to share that prosperity, and ensure that we’re tackling some of the problems, including in the North and the East of the city, where we also have neglected environments.
PAUL STAINTON: So what are you going to do? Direct money to those problems and those communities?
LEWIS HERBERT: What we’re going to do is we get income from growth. We get a New Homes Bonus, some of which we need to spend on the growing areas, and people will see the rate of new housing in Trumpington or in the North West of the city. And we’ll use a lot of that to help growth, but we’ll also share that, and some of the income from extra business rates, and use that money effectively to tackle some of the issues in areas that have been neglected. A lot of the expenditure on improved community facilities and better transport is being directed solely at the areas of the city that have been growing.
PAUL STAINTON: I’m looking down the list of commitments that you’ve got here though, and it’s extensive isn’t it? It goes on and on and on and on. How are you going to afford it all? Continue reading “Lewis Herbert – New Leader of Cambridge City Council”
