Reorganisation options have been revealed ahead of the creation of new unitary councils across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Council leaders have identified three preferred options.

The announcement has been made in response to a national government requirement to replace the current district, county and city councils with simpler unitary councils, instead of two tiers of local government. From April 2028, rather than dealing with separate county, city, and district authorities, residents will access all services - from road maintenance and bin collections to education, planning, social housing, social care, and support with benefits - through a unitary council.

Parish and town councils will not be affected and will continue to operate as they do now, serving your local communities. The Government believes these changes will improve services, making them simpler and more efficient for residents and businesses, as well as supporting economic growth and delivering much needed housing.

Since these proposed changes were announced by Government in late 2024, all seven authorities have been working collaboratively to identify viable options for new unitary councils across the region.

In a joint statement, council leaders said: “As council leaders we are working collaboratively in the best interest of residents and businesses across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The Government’s reorganisation agenda has raised some challenging issues for us all which we have been working through collectively over the last few months.

"We still have outstanding questions and issues which have yet to be resolved. However, we agree that there are currently three options that appear to be the most financially viable based on the Government’s criteria.

"These options are based on existing authority boundaries and are being further developed to be submitted to Government by late November. The three options each contain two new unitary councils that would in future cover the entire Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area and replace all existing local authorities:

"We recognise each option has different strengths and different implications for services, our local communities, and businesses. We are taking an evidence-based approach, inevitably the different needs and local identities of our areas will have a significant impact on the preference of our own councils, and we must respect that.

"We encourage residents, our partner agencies and businesses to feed into this process by sharing what matters most to them through an engagement exercise being launched next week. We also want to take this opportunity to reassure residents that services will not be affected, and to praise the collective local government workforce across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough for their continued efforts on behalf of our communities during this period of change.

"We appreciate that reorganisation may create some uncertainty for them which we will work with Government to do our best to mitigate.”

The statement has been attributed to:

Cllr Anna Bailey, Leader, East Cambridgeshire District Council

Cllr Chris Boden, Leader, Fenland District Council

Cllr Sarah Conboy, Leader, Huntingdonshire District Council

Cllr Mike Davey, Leader, Cambridge City Council

Cllr Dennis Jones, Leader, Peterborough City Council

Cllr Lucy Nethsingha, Leader, Cambridgeshire County Council

Cllr Bridget Smith, Leader, South Cambridgeshire District Council

Get the latest breaking news and top stories straight to your phone for free with CambridgeshireLive's WhatsApp channel. To join, all you need to do is click this link to access the latest updates from across the county.

When you open the channel, you can switch on notifications by clicking the bell symbol in the top right corner. No-one else will be able to see any of your details and we won't send constant messages - just regular updates on the biggest headlines.

We also treat members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. Read our privacy notice here.

Cambridge City Council has taken action against two rogue landlords for not protecting their tenants. A Peterborough-based landlord has been prosecuted and ordered to pay £10,126 (including costs) for illegally evicting a tenant from a property in Arbury.

The council received a complaint about an alleged illegal eviction. They discovered evidence that the tenant had been illegally evicted from a house in multiple occupation (HMO).

A court heard that the landlord had unlawfully deprived the tenant access to the property by changing the locks and removing their belongings. This happened while they were away from the property.

Meanwhile a Cambridge-based landlord was issued with a civil penalty totalling £2,597 for running a HMO in King’s Hedges, without the required licence. The landlord, who owns several HMOs throughout the city, had been running the property without a licence since legally needing to obtain one for it in 2018.

Under the Housing Act 2004, certain types of rented HMOs must be licensed to ensure they meet safety, suitability and management standards. Compliance with these requirements help to protect tenants and maintain housing standards.

Cllr Gerri Bird, Cabinet Member for Housing, said: “No one should have to live in fear that they might be forced out of their home. We are committed to ensuring all landlords adhere to legal requirements.

"These requirements are in place to protect residents from poor rental housing management practices. I’d like to encourage anyone that has any concerns about the condition or management of their private rented accommodation to get in touch with the council so that they can access the right support.

“We also offer support for landlords to make sure that they have all the tools they need to rent out their properties in accordance with the law and in a way that ensures tenants' health, safety and well-being.”

A new co-housing community where residents share everything and live in energy-efficient homes is coming to Nothstowe. Two groups of future Northstowe residents are currently working with architects and developers from TOWN and Mole Architects, to design a new kind of neighbourhood which is shaped around community.

The future residents gathered in person to take part in a codesign workshops to help them take an active role in shaping the design of their future homes and shared spaces - from kitchens and gardens to courtyards and car-free streets.

Just a few miles from Marmalade Lane – Cambridge’s multi-award-winning cohousing neighbourhood also developed by TOWN in 2019. Cambridge City Council originally owned the Marmalade Lane site and worked closely with residents, Cambridge Architectural Research, C2O Futureplanners and Instinctively Green to craft the city’s first council-enabled co-housing scheme.

Marmalade Lane incorporates communal waste stores and 146 cycle parking spaces, with minimal car parking spaces. It is designed to attract a diverse range of residents, including downsizing couples and families with young children. The site sits on a pedestrianised lane where a Swingball pole and football goalposts line the street as a place for outdoor activities.

The new Northstowe communities will have many of the same principles: sociable streets, energy-efficient and well-designed homes, generous shared spaces and facilities and long-term resident stewardship.

Among those taking part is Michelle Lara, 39, a teacher with two young children.

She said: "This feels like what we’ve been looking for – I feel it’s really important to have that sense of community and neighbourliness. Everyone together, from babies right up to the elderly and everyone in between.

"It’s such an important part of a sustainable community, where younger people can help the older people as well. I want that for my children, I want them to be involved, to see that it’s quite normal to contribute to a group – then you get so much more back.”

The two groups taking shape at Northstowe share a common commitment to living in an intergenerational community. One group, Suvana, is forming a cohousing community grounded in Buddhist values of compassion, generosity and interdependence.

The second group, currently known as Northstowe Cohousing, is a secular community united by a desire to live more sustainably, sociably and cooperatively.

The Northstowe cohousing communities are being delivered by SME developer TOWN and The Hill Group through a new joint venture, backed by Homes England, the master developers of Northstowe - a growing new town ten miles from Cambridge.

Jonny Anstead, Founding Director of TOWN, says cohousing offers an alternative to more conventional new-build housing, which tends to be quite private and can lead to residents feeling isolated from one another.

He said: “Cohousing is a lovely alternative because it gives people friends, and community. It gives people support and a sense of belonging, which I think is really rare in new housing.

"It’s also a really practical and more environmentally friendly way of living. Instead of everyone having one of everything, some things can be shared.

"People still have their own home and their own space, but it gives them that extra layer of resource sharing.”

Cohousing is a growing model of community-led housing in which people design and manage their neighbourhoods collectively, combining private homes with shared spaces and a commitment to living more collaboratively and sustainably.

The codesign sessions began in 2024 and will continue over the summer, with a planning application expected later this year. Homes are expected to be available in 2028.