Surrey Community Surrey demonstrates how a city-region can bring together all sectors within the local community to get involved and adopt the ThriveAbility principles.
As well as enhancing and sustaining quality of life, health and wellbeing, overseeing sustainable land use management and smart (green) economic growth, Surrey County Council is the first in the UK to produce a National Capital Investment Strategy. Mark Pearson and Sarah-Jane talked us through their findings... Developing a framework The decisions of the council impact the local environment, economy and - ultimately - the people. Having collaborated with public health teams, the Surrey Nature Partnership, elected councilors, large land owners and the University of Surrey, the County Council started to establish its own values framework. It began with the exploration of four key capitals: to develop human capital, secure social capital, protect environmental capital and provide physical capital. They were then able to start making evidence-based decisions for and with the community.
Smart Economic Growth
that there is a financial value to it and understanding how it links into economic growth is key. The Surrey With a view to constantly innovate and grow as Nature Partnership is an incubator and innovator a whole community, the council designed and that combines the intellectual capacity of a range delivered 8 community projects for: finance and of standpoints. Each standpoint brings added value business skills, business incubation, opportunities and is should be part of the discussion. to export and to show that the county was open for business to inward investors. As a result of their • Surrey Future: With a projected growth of forward-thinking leaders, an enhanced strategy around 70,000 population, the county will need for Smart Economic Growth was developed. about 46,000 homes by 2030, so local people are going to see a jobs growth creation of 50,000. Outcomes of the strategy and the capitals Surrey is £5.5 billion hard infrastructure which that were applied: generates about £7 billion a year, so the county is also bringing local partners together for investment • Superfast Surrey: There are 65000 enterprises, in infrastructure. of which over 300 are large business and over 150 are global brand names. The county is also aiming • Surrey Business Leaders Forum: Relationships for 100% coverage of fibre based outputs and are a key aspect of what we all do, so Surrey has currently stands at 95.7%. developed an investment opportunity for business leaders through story-telling. The forum is a bridge • Surrey Nature Partnership: The natural between different sectors that would usually work environment underpins everything that we do. We in silos. “Rather than us coming up with a theory rely on it intrinsically for everything, so recognising and directing, it’s a bottom up approach”.
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