Surrey has six of UK’s ten most prosperous council areas
That is according to new research published recently
Six of the UK’s ten most prosperous council areas are found in Surrey.
Waverley ranks second overall out of 379 local authorities in a report published last week by the Centre for UK Prosperity.
And Elmbridge, Epsom and Ewell, Woking, Surrey Heath and Guildford are also all found in the top ten.
The think-tank Legatum Institute’s UK Prosperity Index assesses how each local authority area is performing in terms of institutional, economic, and social wellbeing.
Cllr Paul Follows, Waverley Borough Council’s new leader, said the research confirms “what we’ve known all along – that Waverley is a fantastic place to live, work, raise children, start a business or just visit to explore our beautiful natural areas”.
He added: “I have also been humbled by the way our communities have rallied around to support those most affected by the pandemic over the last 15 months, and it is very clear to me why we score so highly on the social capital pillar.”
Social capital includes trust in institutions, civic participation, social networks, and strong family relationships shown by fewer looked-after children.
At 76%, Waverley had one of the highest turnouts in the UK in the last general election in 2019.
The borough also excelled in health, investment environment and natural environment.
Cllr Follows said he was “surprised” by a lower score for personal freedom, which includes tolerance of different ethnicities. This was in line with every other area of Surrey.
He said the council had recently created the portfolio of equality, diversity and inclusion so that one of their cabinet will focus solely on that area, “in recognition that tolerance is indeed a fundamental aspect of quality of life”.
He added he is excited to be welcoming the Surrey Pride main event to Godalming this year.
Of all parts of Surrey, Waverley scored the lowest for infrastructure, which includes transport, utilities and communications.
“This is the key area that requires improvement in our borough,” said Cllr Follows.
“The council introduced the Community Infrastructure Levy on new development in 2019 to address this issue, and I’ll be challenging Surrey County Council and the Government on their infrastructure investment criteria, which often means areas like Waverley are less of a priority.”
Infrastructure was the worst rated category for the South East as a whole, and the only one where the region was below the UK average, with roads there more likely than the average place to require maintenance.
But the South East region was number one for not only prosperity overall but also governance – trust in and effectiveness of local government – plus living conditions and health.
Its residents tend to enjoy a long life expectancy and there are relatively low rates of mental illness and homelessness. The overall rate of poverty is 18 per cent compared with a UK national average of 22 per cent.
Epsom and Ewell, Reigate and Banstead and Woking all scored highly for living conditions, which includes a physically safe environment and ease of access to local amenities.
Woking Borough Council leader Ayesha Azad said: “We have striven to improve living conditions through better tenants’ services and regeneration and look after people’s health. I’m pleased this is reflected in the study.
“This study also tells us Woking is going in the right direction because over the past decade, we have moved from seventh to fifth best overall.”
The South East lagged behind the South West, East of England and London in terms of tolerance and the natural environment, which includes management of waste and flooding as well as exposure to air pollution.
It is also behind those three regions in the area of enterprise conditions, which includes support for small and medium business – although this may reflect having the second highest property costs in the country – and in economic quality, which involves the proportion of private sector companies with high research and development spending.
According to the dataset the worst Surrey area for enterprise conditions is Epsom and Ewell, though the borough scored extremely highly for governance.
Nowhere in Surrey made it into the top 20 for education, with the majority of these being London boroughs.
But five areas of the county – Waverley, Elmbridge, Mole Valley, Surrey Heath and Guildford – made the top 20 for health.
Cllr Stephen Cooksey, Mole Valley District Council leader, said as well as the council’s regeneration programmes such as Opportunity Dorking and Transform Leatherhead: “We are also of course blessed with the natural beautiful surroundings in our district.”
“There are so many opportunities to explore as part of outdoor living here,” he said.
“This without doubt led to strong ratings for health and social capital.”
Mole Valley was in first place overall in the country ten years ago and has now fallen to 11th place.
Cllr Cooksey added: “As a small district, compared to other much larger locations across the UK, we are extremely proud to have remained so highly ranked.”
In contrast, Epsom and Ewell, Surrey Heath and Runnymede have all made significant gains in the past decade.
Spelthorne has also improved considerably since 2011, moving up from 68th place to 51st.
It is however noticeably lagging behind other Surrey boroughs, with the next lowest – Tandridge – at 23.