Social Value Ideas for Surrey Heath Borough Council

Long-term funding remains positive

The financial update reported strong income performance, with tariff income, dividends and bank interest leaving the project with a positive net position and additional money being added to the endowm…

“Speaker 9: So the key point to take away is that the in year investment income is sufficient to fully fund the expenditure and allow a little bit extr…”

Revised salary forecast approved

The board approved a revised financial forecast for 2026/27 to 2029/30 that increases the salary budget by just over £55,000. This reflects a confirmed Natural England pay award and supports planned e…

“Speaker 6: The updated forecast you can see here reflects a proposed increase in the salary budget of just over £55,000 representing a 10 o 6% uplift.…”

Audit backlog and disclaimed opinions

The external auditor said the council still has a disclaimed opinion for 2025-26 and will need to focus on in-year transactions and closing balances, including debtors, creditors and rental income. Th…

“"So, that's that sounds as if that should be simple, but you may recall uh that we highlighted for you some of the difficulties last year. So for exam…”

Outturn better than budget

The council reported a significantly improved financial outturn, reducing the planned draw on reserves from £8 million to £4 million. The improvement came from service underspends and a loan modificat…

“We set an overall budget position needing to draw down on reserves of 8 million. The outturn was actually that draw down was 4 million. So we did much…”

Pathway back to assurance

Grant Thornton set out the Department’s regaining assurance framework and Surrey Heath’s current position within it. The council must submit its formal assessment by the end of July, with the report i…

“"what this report sets out is our assessment of where you sit against one of four categories that the department has set and that's shown on page eigh…”

Chobham Neighbourhood Plan adopted

The council formally approved the Chobham Neighbourhood Plan, bringing it into the statutory development plan for Surrey Heath. The plan had already passed consultation, examination and referendum, an…

“Thank you, councilor Ashbury. Neighborhood plans are a way in which local communities can influence the scale and type of development in their area. O…”

Extend SAM agreement

Members agreed to formally continue the current SAM agreement for a minimum of 12 months while wider work is completed on tariffs, governance, communications between officers and board members, and th…

“Speaker 13: So the paper was included in the agenda pack. That's previously been sent to the local planning officers group and any comments received w…”

New local plan review

The executive approved commencing a local plan review under the new national plan-making system, including publication of the intention to start plan making before the 30 June deadline, a gateway one …

“A new plan making system has been introduced by the government through regulations published in March. Surrey Heath is in the first round of local aut…”

Local plan work pressure

The council is under significant delivery pressure to progress the existing local plan to adoption while simultaneously starting a new local plan review under a new government planning regime. Officer…

“So this is a new timetable which reflects the new regulations which came into force in March of this year. It is a lot of work for us to progress the …”