Tandridge Economic Dev e l o p m e n t & Bus i n e s s Study

R eport on Research Findings

June 2014

Prepared by:

Matthews Associates & TSE Research

Registered in England No. 01345038

Registered office: 40 Chamberlayne Road Eastleigh Hampshire Tel: +44 (0) 23 80625459

VAT Registration No. GB 190 0026 08

TSE Research is a member of the Market Research Society Partner Scheme and our fieldwork is accredited by the Interviewer Quality Standards Scheme

Member Company Registered under the Data Protection Act - Registration No. Z8594703

1

CONT E NT S

1! INTRODUCTION ...... 4! 1.1! Study background and aims ...... 4! 1.2! Issues Summary ...... 5! 2! BACKGROUND OF THE TANDRIDGE ECONOMY ...... 6! 2.2! The Economy and Gross Value Added (GVA) ...... 6! 2.3! Competitiveness ...... 7! 2.4! Business Start-up data ...... 8! 2.5! Unemployment ...... 8! 2.6! Comparison with Mid-1990’s ...... 9! 2.7! Smart Economic Growth...... 10! 2.8! Smart Growth in Tandridge ...... 11! 3! BUSINESS AUDIT - SUMMARY & OPTIONS ...... 13! 3.1! Business Audit ...... 13! 4! BUSINESS SURVEY - SUMMARY & OPTIONS ...... 15! 4.1! Business Survey ...... 15! 5! LOCAL ISSUES & OPTIONS ...... 18! 5.2! Gasholder Oxted ...... 20! 5.3! Lambs Business Park ...... 22! 5.4! Hobbs Industrial Estate ...... 23! 5.5! Other sites within Tandridge ...... 25! 5.6! Town Centres ...... 25! 5.7! Managed Towns & Business Improvement Districts ...... 27! 5.8! Caterham Digital Hub ...... 30! 5.9! Business Support & Engagement ...... 30! 5.10! Review of Public Assets ...... 32! 5.11! Rural Economy ...... 32! 5.12! Visitor Economy...... 33! 5.13! Capacity for Economic Development ...... 34! 6! STRATEGIC ISSUES & OPTIONS ...... 35! 6.2! Local Enterprise Partnerships ...... 35! 6.3! Gatwick Diamond Initiative ...... 42! 6.4! Gatwick Airport Second Runway ...... 43! 6.5! East Surrey District’s & Boroughs ...... 45! 7! AUDIT & SURVEY INTRODUCTION ...... 46! 7.1! Study background and aims ...... 46! 7.2! Methodology ...... 46! 7.3! Outline of report ...... 51! 8! BUSINESS AUDIT ...... 52! 8.1! Business overview ...... 52! 8.2! Spatial distribution of businesses ...... 53! 8.3! Relative size of each sector ...... 54! 8.4! Accommodation & Food Service Activities ...... 55! 8.5! Administrative & Support Service Activities ...... 56! 8.6! Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing ...... 57!

2

8.7! Arts, Entertainment & Recreation ...... 57! 8.8! Construction ...... 58! 8.9! Education ...... 59! 8.10! Electricity, Gas, Steam & Air Conditioning Supply ...... 60! 8.11! Financial & Insurance Activities ...... 60! 8.12! Human Health & Social Work Activities ...... 61! 8.13! Information & Communication ...... 61! 8.14! Manufacturing ...... 62! 8.15! Mining & Quarrying ...... 64! 8.16! Other Service Activities ...... 64! 8.17! Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities ...... 65! 8.18! Public Administration & Defence ...... 66! 8.19! Real Estate ...... 67! 8.20! Transportation & Storage ...... 67! 8.21! Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management & Remedial Activities .. 68! 8.22! Wholesale and retail trade, including motor trade ...... 68! 8.23! Rural based businesses ...... 70! 9! BUSINESS SURVEY ...... 71! 9.1! Introduction ...... 71! 9.2! Business structure ...... 71! 9.3! Number of staff ...... 73! 9.4! Age of business ...... 74! 9.5! VAT status ...... 75! 9.6! Transport used by staff ...... 76! 9.7! Advantages and disadvantages to trading in Tandridge ...... 78! 9.8! Market reach ...... 79! 9.9! Sales channels ...... 81! 9.10! Use of digital communication ...... 82! 9.11! Broadband speed & provision ...... 83! 9.12! Business performance ...... 84! 9.13! Reasons behind performance increase/decrease ...... 87! 9.14! Barriers limiting business growth ...... 88! 9.15! Use of business support or advice ...... 93! 9.16! Preferred location if relocated ...... 95! 10! VISITOR ECONOMY ...... 96! 10.1! Introduction ...... 96! 10.2! Volume and value of tourism ...... 96! 10.3! Key tourism markets ...... 97! 10.4! Share of tourism market ...... 98! 10.5! Key attractions within Tandridge ...... 99!

3

1 IN T R O D U CTI O N

1.1 Study background and aims

1.1.1 In October 2013, the Tandridge District Council Resources Committee agreed that work be commissioned, supported by the economic development reserve, to establish the key economic issues in Tandridge, including the economic-base within the district, and to develop a strategic approach to economic growth.

1.1.2 This work would enable the Council to safeguard the district’s future prosperity and contribute toward Council’s key corporate priority To work with local businesses to promote economic growth and employment.

1.1.3 As part of this work, Matthews Associates working in partnership with TSE Research were commissioned to establish the economic base within the district, identify the key economic issues and support the Council in developing a strategic approach to economic growth.

This report is structured as follows:

• Background of the wider Tandridge economy

• Summary and options from the business audit

• Summary and options from the business survey

• Specific local issues and options

• Specific strategic issues and options

1.1.4 These sections are supported by detailed research data from:

• Business audit

• Business survey

• Focus on visitor economy

4

1.2 Issues Summary

1.2.1 Although Tandridge is situated within the economic powerhouse of the South East and specifically Surrey, across a number of key measures it is performing poorly in relation to other Surrey Districts & Boroughs (D&Bs).

1.2.2 Within the key GVA (Gross Value Added) indicator Tandridge is the second lowest across all local authorities within both Coast to Capital and Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership areas (out of twenty nine in total).

1.2.3 Within the most recent (2013) UK Competitiveness Index Tandridge has the lowest ranking of all Surrey D&B’s and the biggest ranking decline against the 2010 competiveness index.

1.2.4 Tandridge has the second lowest business birth rate in Surrey according to 2012 ONS statistics and according to new data based on new business bank accounts ranks 268 out of 326 areas surveyed in early 2014.

1.2.5 However against a rapidly improving position across both region and county, Tandridge also has a relatively low unemployment (JSA claimant) rate, and an improving rate within the 16-24 age-range.

1.2.6 The concept of ‘smart economic growth’ as adopted by Surrey Connects would be an appropriate ‘growth’ concept for Tandridge, with resultant ‘smart growth’ options for the District.

1.2.7 Tandridge has lost many core businesses and major employers since the mid-1990’s. The current top-50 sites by rateable value reveals very few commercial businesses outside core retail, leisure and non-commercial.

5

2 BACKGROUND OF THE TANDRIDGE ECONOMY

2.1.1 In this section we look at the wider Tandridge economy in terms of Surrey, comparison with the other D&Bs, established measurement of the economy, a snapshot back to the 1990’s and explore the concept of ‘smart’ economic growth.

2.2 The Economy and Gross Value Added (GVA)

2.2.1 Throughout the economic recession, Surrey has maintained economic growth; the most recent figures quoted by Surrey Connects indicate a 7.9% growth in GVA (Gross Value Added) between 2011 and 2012 (£30,344 million to £32,736 million). This equates to a GVA per head at £28,627, (£26,657 in 2011).

2.2.2 GVA Gross value added (GVA) is a measure in economics of the value of goods and services produced in an area, industry or sector of an economy. Over-simplistically, GVA is the grand total of all revenues, from final sales and (net) subsidies, which are incomes into businesses. Those incomes are then used to cover expenses (wages & salaries, dividends), savings (profits, depreciation), and (indirect) taxes. GVA is part of the wider GDP (Gross Domestic Product), which also takes into account taxes on products, less any subsidies they receive.

1 2.2.3 The Government do not release GVA (Gross Value Added ) figures at District and Borough level so commercially provided figures have to be used. Methodology to calculate this differs between providers2. The most recent figures obtained from ‘Local Futures’ indicate Tandridge’s individual GVA is £1,217.35 million, which is 28th out of the 29 D&B’s across both Enterprise M3 and Coast to Capital LEPs. (Croydon being the highest at £5,827.04 million and Adur the lowest at £798.51 million). Within Surrey D&Bs Reigate & Banstead have the highest GVA at £4,423.76 million.

2.2.4 In broad terms an area that has businesses that are employing people, paying reasonable salaries, making good pre-tax profits and have a productive workforce generate positive GVA figures. The number, size and density of businesses within an area, will contribute to its overall GVA performance. D&B’s with a high proportion of large independent businesses, headquarters and major companies will contribute to a better

1 Gross Value Added (GVA) see ONS: http://bit.ly/1kbqjuC 2 Coast to Capital and Enterprise M3 use different GVA calculation methodology, SCC currently use Local Futures datasets 3 http://www.cforic.org/pages/ukci2013.php 2 Coast to Capital and Enterprise M3 use different GVA calculation methodology, SCC currently use Local Futures datasets

6

GVA figure.

2.3 Competitiveness

2.3.1 GVA calculations calculated below County and Unitary levels are often criticised for accuracy. Another comparative measure is competitiveness:

3 2.3.2 The UK Competitiveness Index has been published since 2002 on an approximate bi-annual basis by the Centre for International Competitiveness. The study undertaken by the University of Cardiff gives a statistical ranking based on a number of key measures including: economic activity, business start-ups, number of businesses, working age population with stage 4 or higher qualifications, proportion of knowledge based businesses, GVA per head, productivity, employment & unemployment rates and gross weekly pay. A total of 379 local areas are benchmarked across the 11 regions of Great Britain.

2.3.3 The table below shows Tandridge at 92 out of 379 local areas; although in terms of Surrey Tandridge is the lowest ranking area, also showing the greatest negative change between 2013 and 2010.

Locality 2013 rank Change 2013 score 2010 rank 2010 score

City of London (highest) 1 = 773.6 1 688.4

Mole Valley 11 +1 123.3 12 123.1

Spelthorne 13 +48 121.3 61 108.0

Elmbridge 20 -5 118.1 15 119.9

Waverley 21 +10 117.0 31 115.0

Guildford 22 -1 116.7 21 117.1

Epsom & Ewell 25 +23 115.7 48 110.9

Surrey Heath 27 -1 115.4 26 116.1

Reigate & Banstead 28 +14 115.2 42 111.7

Runnymede 36 -17 113.0 19 118.9

Woking 41 -9 110.9 32 114.4

Tandridge 92 -24 102.7 68 106.8

Blaenau Gwent (lowest) 379 = 71.7 379 73.4

3 http://www.cforic.org/pages/ukci2013.php

7

2.4 Business Start-up data

2.4.1 Business births give an indication of how entrepreneurial an area is in terms of new businesses being created. ONS data is limited to businesses that employ staff (using PAYE) and/or are VAT registered. ONS data is also very slow to be published; the latest dataset is from 2012.

2.4.2 Using the ‘Surreyi’ portal we find that Tandridge had 485 new businesses registered in 2012, the second lowest in Surrey (Waverley the highest at 1,060), and the lowest if expressed as percentage of active enterprises at 10.1% (Spelthorne being the highest at 14.6%).

2.4.3 Surrey Connects/SCC are testing start-up data from a company called Banksearch4 who use a combination of data sources including official ONS data, Companies House data and also anonymised data from the major banks on new business account opening. This provides incredibly localised data on start-ups down to ward level.

2.4.4 At present the SCC only has Tandridge sample data for March and April 2014, which indicates 70 start-up’s in March and 62 in April. Banksearch state that the District’s cumulative start-up figure for the four months of 2014 is 18.2% lower than the previous year and that the growth rate ranks Tandridge 268 out of 326 councils surveyed. This service requires further evaluation but has the potential to provide some interesting data on start- up activity within the District.

2.4.5 The official ONS business ‘deaths’ figure for Tandridge for 2012 is listed as 475, using a crude comparison the net new business figure for 2012 using this data is just new 10 businesses. Although not exact like for like figures the low net figure is worth considering in terms of local growth and prosperity linked to new business creation and entrepreneurism.

2.5 Unemployment

2.5.1 In terms of unemployment as measured by JSA claimants, as of April 2014 Surrey’s overall JSA claimant number had fallen to 6,997 representing just 1.0% of the working age population. This is the lowest figure since October 2008. In comparison the South East is 1.7%, Coast to Capital is 1.8% and Enterprise M3 is 1.0%.

2.5.2 At Surrey D&B level Spelthorne and Reigate & Banstead have the highest JSA levels at 1.2% and Waverley the lowest at 0.7%, Tandridge is 1.1% equal to Surrey Heath and Woking. In line with the rest of Surrey this

4 http://www.banksearch-consultancy.com/j3/index.php/en/

8

figure has been improving at -39.14% against April 2013.

2.5.3 Tandridge continues to have relatively low 16-24 claimant rate numbering 105 in April 2014 (5th lowest in Surrey), a 38.24% reduction on April 2013. Like many similar Surrey districts it is widely believed that the 16-24 claimant rate is understated through young people remaining at home supported by parental income rather than claiming unemployment benefit.

2.6 Comparison with Mid-1990’s

2.6.1 As part of the background research a previous economic development strategy position statement produced in the mid-1990’s was located. Within the appendices a table of major employers was published listing over 30 major employers based within the District. Regrettably the majority of these are no longer based within the District and in many cases the sites they occupied have been redeveloped for residential use.

2.6.2 Notable exceptions are the fixed hospitality and leisure venues of Nutfield Priory, Lingfield Park and the Clacket Lane Services (then Roadchef). The early incarnation of the Gold Group, Goldstar Publications; the early incarnation of Campden BRI, then Brewery Research.

2.6.3 A review of the current business rates (NNDR) listing indicates that within the top 50 sites by rateable value, excluding supermarkets, educational establishments, infrastructure, public sector and hospitality & leisure operators, there are very few large scale commercial businesses remaining within Tandridge. In order of size by rateable value:

th • Gold Group – Retail and mail-order (14 ) th • Sibelco UK – Minerals (18 ) th • Monier – Roofing materials (19 ) st • Croudace – Housebuilder (21 ) rd • Linden Homes – Housebuilder (33 ) th • Bristow Helicopters – Aviation (34 ) th • TLP – IT support consultants (35 ) st • Fairalls of Godstone – Builders Merchants (41 ) th • Campden BRI – Brewing and food research (44 ) th • BP Oil – Service station (45 ) th • ATOS Origin Services – IT services (49 )

9

2.6.4 It should also be noted that within the top 50 listing there are 12 entries mainly schools and charitable institutions claiming £1.6m of rate reliefs.

2.6.5 There are only five premises within Tandridge that have rateable values in excess of £1m: 1 x Sainsburys, 2 x Morrisons, 2 x M25 services (one each way) and Lingfield Park.

2.6.6 There are 2,857 entries on the Tandridge NNDR listing. ONS data indicates there are 4,785 PAYE and/or VAT businesses within Tandridge, our research has identified 3,374 of these including contact details.

2.6.7 There are many reasons why a business may not be listed on the NNDR list e.g. shared office with a single NNDR listing. We conclude that there is a possibility that some of the businesses could be falling through the Valuation Office registration system for NNDR. We would recommend a cross-check between the researched database and NNDR database to ensure all businesses with rateable premises are on the NNDR list.

2.7 Smart Economic Growth

2.7.1 The concept of ‘SMART’ economic growth became popular after the United Nations adopted Agenda 215 at the 1992 Rio environment and development conference. ‘Smart growth’ acknowledged economic growth will happen but it should be sustainable. The US has championed many smart growth initiatives, with the NRDC6 summarising smart growth as:

“….there are a range of best practices associated with smart growth, these include: supporting existing communities, redeveloping underutilized sites, enhancing economic competitiveness, providing more transportation choices, developing livability measures and tools, promoting equitable and affordable housing, providing a vision for sustainable growth, enhancing integrated planning and investment, aligning, coordinating, and leveraging government polices, redefining housing affordability and making the development process transparent”

2.7.2 The University of Maryland supported National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education7 (NCSG) refined this defintion further as:

“…are the overarching goals of smart growth, and they include: making the community more competitive for new businesses, providing alternative places to shop, work, and play, creating a better "Sense of Place," providing jobs for residents, increasing property values, improving quality of life, expanding the tax base, preserving open space, controlling growth,

5 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21 6 http://www.nrdc.org/smartgrowth/ 7 http://smartgrowth.umd.edu

10

and improving safety”

2.7.3 In 2000 The Surrey Economic Partnership adopted smart growth as one of its core principles. Surrey Connects, its current incarnation, has continued using smart growth as a core element of its strategy stating:

“Smart Economic Growth is our strategy to drive economic growth through knowledge, innovation and creativity. It's about extracting ‘more for less’. It means using technology and innovative ways of working to increase productivity without damaging the quality of life or the environment in Surrey”

“in our view, economic growth and sustainable development must go hand in hand in order to protect the quality of life for future generations as well as for today. Surrey Connects will optimise the potential of people, land, space and technology. Our strategy is about investing in skills and innovation to increase our productivity so that we can all share in the benefits of a strong, prosperous economy and a high quality of life”.

2.7.4 In terms of the local economy within Tandridge with 94% of District within greenbelt designation and severe pressure in terms of housing supply and supporting infrastructure, adopting a smart growth approach would be understandable and appropriate.

2.8 Smart Growth in Tandridge

2.8.1 Examples of ‘smart growth’ in Tandridge could be:

• The occupation/use of vacant commercial and public property

• Optimising the use of underutilised sites

• Maximising the occupation density of commercial property

• Encouraging the optimisation of use/occupation of retail properties

• Improving the energy efficiency of commercial property

• Improving the skills and productivity of the current workforce

• Promoting the use of technology to improve business performance

• Encouraging more residents to work within or near the District

• Encouraging home based working and home based businesses

• Encouraging travel outside core commuting periods

• Providing facilities to encourage car-free transport modes

• Encouraging investment in public transport infrastructure

• Encouraging investment in superfast broadband coverage

11

• Encourage a culture of local entrepreneurism

• Encourage community collaboration and engagement

• Encourage residents and businesses to adopt a “sense of place”

• Supporting local supply chains and local procurement

• Promote ‘smart growth’ principles to local businesses

12

3 BUSI NE S S AUDIT - SU M M A R Y & O PTIO N S

3.1 Business Audit

3.1.1 A detailed business audit was undertaken using a variety of data sources to identify and map the majority of businesses based within Tandridge. Details of the audit are contained in section 8 of this report.

3.1.2 The business audit showed a similar size structure to Surrey and the SE but lower across the larger >250 employee banding. A historic 1995 economic study showed the variety of major businesses that previously were located within the District; by 2014 the number of major businesses had markedly reduced.

3.1.3 The ‘wholesale & retail trade’ and ‘construction industry’ were the District’s largest represented sectors. In comparison with the recent Surrey business survey some key sectors such as ‘information & communication businesses’ and ‘professional, scientific & technical activities’ are both below the county average, these are generally perceived as ‘high-growth’ sectors.

3.1.4 The heat mapping in section 8.2.1 shows a wide distribution of businesses across the whole District with expected concentrations around the urban centres of Oxted and Caterham. When the results were filtered using SCC rural postcodes 1,650 (48%) of the identified businesses were based within rural designated areas. These rural based businesses were from all sectors not just agricultural related activities.

3.1.5 Options:

A: The incremental loss of major businesses has had a negative impact on the District’s economy in terms of GVA, local employment, local supply chain and overall competitiveness. The Council’s strategic policy and future planning policy should be reviewed to encourage businesses to locate within the District and existing businesses to expand and remain within the District.

B: The provision of business premises i.e. business parks and technology hubs, particularly suited to high-growth, knowledge based sectors such as ‘information & communication businesses’ and ‘professional, scientific & technical activities’ should be actively encouraged.

C: Increased diversification and intensification of the District’s rural economy should be encouraged. Following the Council’s green belt review poor quality green belt/AGLV land of little environmental value could be

13

considered for re-designation to allow controlled sustainable development of commercial activities.

14

4 BUSINESS SURVEY - SUMMARY & OPTIONS

4.1 Business Survey

4.1.1 A business survey was undertaken with 400 Tandridge based businesses (340 via telephone and 60 on-line) this survey gave us insights into their size, structure, perceptions, challenges and barriers. Details of the survey are contained in section 9 of the report.

4.1.2 The survey revealed that the majority of respondents were in the micro/SME’s category with under 4 employees, they had been trading for more than 10 years, were a limited company, were VAT registered and travelled to work by car.

4.1.3 The number of young start ups is relatively low; only 2% of businesses are under a year old. This concurs with new start-up data reviewed in section 2.4. Start-up businesses are an indication as how entrepreneurial an area is.

4.1.4 The respondents were generally positive about trading in Tandridge citing good transport links, parking, communications, access to customers and premises as advantages. They conversely felt that public transport, availability of housing and energy costs as disadvantages.

4.1.5 The majority of businesses sell their goods and services within Tandridge, Surrey and South East, mainly from their own premises. Few are considering selling their goods or services overseas. Although most have a dedicated phone line and email, less are using the full scope of digital technology available to them, although most feel their broadband is ok.

4.1.6 In terms of performance as small majority said their performance had remained the same in the previous year, with a fifth saying their performance had decreased. Looking forward the sample was optimistic with over a half expecting an increase over the coming year.

4.1.7 Given three headline scenarios for barriers limiting business growth the majority of the respondents did not feel there were adverse barriers to their businesses growing. However within each headline, factors such as recessionary pressures, statutory costs such as business rates, ability to recruit suitably skilled staff, affordability of premises and availability of advice and support were cited by a number of respondents.

4.1.8 Very few surveyed businesses had sought advice or support within the last year, when they had it was mainly for financial advice, access to finance,

15

business planning, recruitment and training and legal advice.

4.1.9 When asked where a business would want to relocate to a significant majority stated they wanted to remain within the District, although in and around Oxted was cited as the most desirable location, followed by in and around Caterham.

4.1.10 Options:

A: The relative age of businesses and low comparative start-up rate indicate lower-levels of entrepreneurial activity. Therefore direct assistance with pre-start and start-up activity is recommended. This could be achieved by supporting agencies such as Enterprise First to operate within the District, and/or by funding the extension of established initiatives such as ‘Be the Business’ or ‘Business Growth Navigator’ into the District.

B: Exporting is one of the key growth opportunities available to UK businesses, yet comparatively few Tandridge businesses choose to export their goods and services. Organisations such as UKTI offer direct support to businesses considering, newly exporting and developing their export activity. Working in partnership with the LEP, Surrey Chambers of Commerce and SCC the Council could help support a campaign to encourage businesses within the District to consider trading overseas.

C: The uptake of using digital routes to market was relatively poor within the survey results. The need for every business to have an on-line presence, when appropriate transactional, plus actively use emerging commercial social media opportunities will help create a ‘digital’ Tandridge. Availability of broadband is important but the awareness and skills of business to embrace new technology paramount. The Council should consider supporting subsidised or free digital awareness and skills training for businesses in tandem with the roll-out of superfast broadband.

D: Although the headline results showed few core barriers to growth, there were underlying areas where businesses cited the need for help. Business advice and support and skills and training were such underlying areas. As recommended above the Council’s support of an organisation such as Enterprise First would help fill these underlying needs through direct service provision or signposting to the available services. The LEP has also identified similar issues and aims to tackle them via targeted interventions, the Council could directly support these being rolled-out locally within Tandridge.

E: Businesses expressed a preference to remain in Tandridge if required to relocate, yet feedback within the survey and externally cite shortages of suitable commercial space to relocate or expand into. Much commercial

16

space in the District has been lost to residential development. Recent permitted development rights have exacerbated this situation. The Council needs to consider robust future planning policies and land allocation to facilitate commercial economic growth within the District.

17

5 LO C A L ISSU ES & O PTIO NS

5.1.1 Within the project brief we were asked to look at some specific areas of interest to Tandridge District Council:

5.1.2 Local Growth Issues:

• Rose and Young Caterham • Gasholder Oxted • Lambs Business Park • Hobbs Industrial Estate • Other Commercial Sites • Town Centres • Managed Towns and BIDs • Digital Hub • Business support and engagement • Review of Public assets • Rural Economy • Visitor Economy

1.2 Rose & Young

18

5.1.3 Background: Located in central Caterham, the former car showroom site comprising of 2,175m2 (0.22 hectares) has been a long-term issue in terms of visual blight and fragmentation of the Croydon Road retail frontage. Extensive work has been undertaken to engage with the freeholder and agents, enforcement action using S215 powers has been used to improve the appearance and security of the site. The property in its derelict state has been through a number of economic cycles without redevelopment.

5.1.4 Current situation: The Council in March 2012 decided to take a more proactive approach to tackling the issue, approving a policy statement that clearly demonstrated it would investigate and consider using its Compulsory Purchase (CPO) powers to acquire the site subject to a number of conditions. Since then the Council has been in informal discussions with a number of interested parties across multiple potential uses including retail, residential and mixed-use. In all cases the potential developer has been put-off by the complexities of dealing with the owner and the complications, risks and costs of a CPO related acquisition. The Council is currently seeking additional advice on progressing a CPO.

5.1.5 In terms of potential development opportunities for the District, Rose & Young has been identified as a priority intervention in terms of the wider East Surrey, M25 Corridor schemes for the Coast to Capital, Local Enterprise Partnership. Although far smaller in scale than most of the schemes included within their Strategic Economic Plan, Rose & Young has been identified as an intervention within the area that could potentially contribute towards all three key deliverables required by the Government in terms of new jobs, new homes and new commercial floorspace it also has the potential to be brought forward in 2015/16.

5.1.6 The need to pursue the redevelopment of Rose & Young site via CPO powers has newly been agreed by the Council. Advice is being sought from both specialist legal advisors and property consultants with relevant experience. It has been widely acknowledged the commercial property sector that 2013 and 2014 has seen an increase in commercial deals and values steadily increasing especially in London and the South East.

5.1.7 Options:

A: The Council should continue to proactively develop the case for compulsory purchase of the Rose & Young site.

B: Parallel with this should make every effort to positively engage with the freeholder to encourage/facilitate a disposal.

C: That A and/or B will deliver the development potential of the site, ideally as a mixed-use retail, commercial and residential development.

19

It should be noted that ground floor retail use should be encouraged to improve and maintain the retail core of Croydon Road and connectivity between zones.

5.2 Gasholder Oxted

5.2.1 Background: The Oxted Gasholder site offers a development site totalling 0.92 hectares although this total is divided across a number of freeholders, including the Council. Although an incongruous eyesore on Oxted town centre, the complexities of such a site in terms of fragmented ownership, decommissioning and demolition costs and potential land contamination and remediation costs have to date prevented redevelopment of the site.

5.2.2 Current situation: The Council has maintained a regular dialogue with the core owners National Grid and Scotia Gas. The redevelopment of the site has been on their shortlist for some time, although to date has not achieved priority viability status. As the property market has improved it is understood that the site is yet again being considered for redevelopment, although at present for a sheltered housing/extra care residential use.

5.2.3 In terms of potential development opportunities for the District, the Oxted Gasholder has been identified as a priority intervention in terms of the wider East Surrey, M25 Corridor schemes for the Coast to Capital, Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). Although smaller in scale than most of the schemes included within their Strategic Economic Plan, the Oxted

20

Gasholder has been identified as an intervention within the area that could potentially contribute towards all three key deliverables required by the Government in terms of new jobs, new homes and new commercial floorspace. To this end the LEP has identified the development as one that could receive a Local Growth Fund grant to assist with site remediation should the Government funding allocation be sufficient and the site development meet the jobs, homes and commercial floorspace return on investment criteria requirement.

5.2.4 Options:

A: The Council should maintain a proactive dialogue with the core site freeholders in relation to the current sheltered housing/care home options.

B: However in terms of maximising the economic benefit to the District and specifically Oxted town centre, alternative uses such as open-market residential or mixed-use residential and commercial space should be considered.

C: The present sheltered housing/care home option does not utilise the full 0.92 hectare site, this with appropriate site-assembly could offer multiple uses on the site across all suggested use categories, this should be considered.

It should also be noted that the LEP local growth funding may only be available if the site was developed to deliver the required level of jobs, homes and/or commercial floorspace.

21

5.3 Lambs Business Park

5.3.1 Background: Lambs was a former brickworks trading from pre-1900 to circa 2001 where it became a industrial estate/business park. The estate covering an area of 5.4 hectares (out of a 15 hectare site) comprises of a variety of commercial premises ranging from storage yards, light industrial units, mixed storage and office premises. Although primary access to the site is via road (A22/Tilburstow Hill Road) the site is also accessible via a rail siding branching from the Redhill to Tonbridge line.

5.3.2 Current situation: A recent site visit indicated high occupancy levels with very few openly vacant units. Storage space within the estate has been supplemented by the siting of a number of shipping containers throughout the site. Subsequent dialogue with the owners indicate that the estate is virtually full with very few vacant units. The owners however identified issues with some older units meeting the minimum EPC ‘E’ rating by 2018. These units are invariably let at very low rental level per square metre and currently are not commercially viable to upgrade to meet the 2018 minimum standard, even though there is strong demand for inexpensive basic units from many business sectors.

5.3.3 Lambs owners also referenced the possibility to re-utilise the rail siding for freight and ballast, they reported some commercial interest in the siding although at present the estimated costs to upgrade and comply with Network Rail requirements appeared prohibitive. This type of intervention would be of interest to the Local Enterprise Partnership.

5.3.4 The expansion potential of the Lambs site to the west within their perimeter track was also mentioned, further consideration of this may be

22

possible following the Council’s review of the Local Plan.

5.3.5 As with Hobbs although to a much lesser extent, the Gatwick Runway 2 factor should be considered. If approved by the Davis Commission and subsequently receives planning permission, Gatwick R2 would displace up to 2.4m sq ft of commercial space from the area to the south of the current runway. This will inevitably create demand for commercial space in the close proximity to the airport.

5.3.6 Options:

A: The most recent detailed report regarding Lambs appears to have been written in 2004. In light of the NPPF and the most recent TDC core strategy and local plan development, a review of Lambs in terms of its current operation and future opportunities should be commissioned.

B: The specific issue of older buildings not meeting 2018 EPC regulations should also be raised with Lambs management in terms of potential support or signposting from the Council.

C: Sustainable redevelopment and expansion options of the entire Lambs site should also be considered working in close collaboration with the site owners and Council’s strategic planning/development control departments.

5.4 Hobbs Industrial Estate

23

5.4.1 Background: This former barracks site occupies an estimated 15 hectares with mixed-use commercial development ranging from open storage sites, light industrial, commercial vehicle repair, storage and office use. The site is directly accessed from the A22.

5.4.2 Current situation: A recent site visit indicated a well-run and actively managed estate with high levels of occupancy and very little vacant space visually available. Subsequent dialogue with the estate owners indicates the estate is virtually full with a waiting list for some types and sizes of units. Planning history indicates that a number of past and still live permissions were permitted but have not yet been taken-up, these amount to an estimated 4.3 hectares. Further investigation indicates that although permissions have been granted the current build cost vs. achievable rental levels for the use class are reported as not being commercially viable.

5.4.3 With Hobbs, the Gatwick Runway 2 factor should be seriously considered. If approved by the Davis Commission and subsequently receives planning permission, Gatwick R2 would displace up to 2.4m sq ft of commercial space from the area to the south of the current runway. There will inevitably be demand for commercial space in the close proximity to the airport. Hobbs with an estimated 4.3 hectares of potential space could be of great interest to Gatwick and the businesses sited in the R2 development area.

5.4.4 Options:

A: The latent growth space both undeveloped and currently developed with permission for redevelopment should be addressed.

B: Issues over build cost vs. rental income need further investigation in terms of whether the development has the right use-class and rental potential.

C: Investigations should be undertaken as to whether additional sustainable intensification of the site could be achieved within the local Green Belt constraints.

D: In the absence of any previous strategy documents for Hobbs we would recommend that if the Lambs study is updated a similar exercise is undertaken for Hobbs.

24

5.5 Other sites within Tandridge

5.5.1 Using Estates Gazette ‘propertylink’ which aggregates most key property agents advertised details we find the following listed as available locally.

5.5.2 The map below shows current availability of commercial property as listed on Estates Gazette ‘propertylink’ service.

5.6 Town Centres

5.6.1 Tandridge has two core town centres: Caterham in the north of the District, north of the M25 and Oxted mid-District just south of the M25. Lingfield is the most southerly larger settlement within the District. In terms of retail hierarchy and key competition Croydon is the nearest largest shopping destination currently 21st in the UK retail destination rankings8, plus it has announced in November 2013 plans for a £1bn retail-led regeneration of the town centre including the Whitgift and Centrale shopping centres, due to start in 2015.

8 Callcredit/GMAP Annual Retail Vision Report 2013: Croydon 21st (same as 2012) with an estimated retail turnover of £461m, other local retail centres: Brighton 22nd, Bluewater 23rd, Guildford 35th, Sutton 43rd, Crawley 45th .

25

5.6.2 Other retail centres are easily accessible from the District include Crawley offering many key retail chains. Competing local centres such as Reigate have developed a niche offering aspirational, small-chain retailers. The proximity of these competing centres, the need to offer ‘experiential’ shopping at retail ‘destinations’ and the ever-increasing propensity to gravitate to on-line shopping will continue to put pressure on local centres such as Oxted and Caterham.

5.6.3 There has been a significant focus on the future of the UK’s High Street economy over recent years as a number of well-known chains have suffered high-profile failures and retail vacancy rates, especially in the Midlands and North of England have risen inexorably. Government supported initiatives such as the Mary Portas town-teams, selected grant funding and targeted business rates reliefs have received much publicity, but whether they have helped to alter the course of this structural change in our retail buying habits is a moot point outside the scope of this report.

5.6.4 Both towns; Oxted to a lesser extent and Caterham to a greater extent suffer from the common ‘reality vs. expectation’ mismatch between the shops/restaurants residents and workers perceive should be available and the reality of what is available and could be available, given the town’s retail ranking, catchment and availability of suitable units.

5.6.5 This expectation vs. reality mismatch is often heightened by the presence of charity shops who are often perceived as being ‘gap fillers’ when no other retailers will take units. The reality is often the complete opposite as charity shops tend to pay full commercial rents, offer landlords high levels of covenant9 and are often part of a substantial trading division of a parent charity. Most charities can claim 80% business rates relief, also improving their ability to pay full commercial rents.

5.6.6 Both Oxted and Caterham have active local town centre community/business led organisations keen to see their towns thrive and prosper. There has also been some study work undertaken through the market town heathcheck and neighbourhood planning process. Both towns are investigating the opportunities that creating a business improvement district (BID) could bring in terms, management, marketing & promotion and additional town-centre investment, see section 5.7.

10 11 12 13 5.6.7 This notwithstanding there has been significant research undertaken to help identify the future of retail within the UK. In terms of

9 http://www.forsters.co.uk/cmsfiles/pdf/par_covenantstrength.pdf 10 https://www.atcm.org/policy_practice/future_high_streets_forum/fhsfreport1-good_leadership-great_high_streets 11 https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-high-streets-and-town-centres 12 http://www.vanishinghighstreet.com/the-grimsey-review/ 13 http://policy.bcsc.org.uk/beyondretail/index.asp

26

Oxted and Caterham their constrained size, proximity to competing higher- level ‘destination’ centres and the local population’s ability and desire to shop on-line will present future challenges their vitality and viability.

5.6.8 Council initiatives such as providing free shopper parking will be welcomed by retailers and their representative groups, but parking is not the only factor consumers consider when selecting where they will ultimately spend.

5.6.9 If consumers perceive they will be unable to purchase what they want in a pleasant retail environment, often with added ‘experiential’ incentives such as café’s, restaurants and possibly events, they will gravitate to the core retail ‘destinations’ where all requirements will be virtually guaranteed. Otherwise there is the ever-growing default is to save time and order on- line for home delivery or local pick-up.

5.6.10 Options:

A: The Council should review its direct engagement with town centre businesses, business representative organisations and community-led town centre groups with a view to establishing a shared-agenda or joint strategy for each town centre.

B: These should consider the structural changes in retail, local competition and the measures needed to maintain and develop the vitality and viability of the District’s retail offer. This directly links to the Managed Towns and Business Improvement District in section 5.7 below.

C: The Council should proactively ensure all small business rates reliefs are where possible taken-up by the respective business owner. Many businesses across the UK have failed to take up small business, transitional, rural and retail rate reliefs.

5.7 Managed Towns & Business Improvement Districts

5.7.1 The concept of ‘managed’ towns goes back to the 1980’s in the US where local town centres were suffering against the rise in popularity of the shopping malls. The original ‘main street’ programme transferred to the UK in the 1990’s with many town centres employing either directly or indirectly a management function to develop and promote their respective areas. Initially many Town Centre Management (TCM) initiatives were co-funded between local authorities, major retailers and retail property owners although as Business Improvement District (BID) legislation become live many previous private sector funding partners have chosen to fund town management via the BID levy rather than directly to a TCM function.

27

5.7.2 The BID legislation allows an defined town centre or economic area to raise funding to deliver pre-agreed, set objectives and initiatives via an agreed levy charged to businesses within a defined area. The levy is currently calculated as a percentage of the rateable value of a premise within the BID area. BIDs can be flexible as to the rateable value threshold that would incur a levy and can offer discounts to charity shops and businesses within shopping centres already paying service charges. The levy is collected via the Business Rates NNDR collection mechanism by the local authority and passed to the BID management company via a legal agreement such as an SLA, often less collection costs.

5.7.3 In order for a BID to be formed and funded the proposed area must undertake a comprehensive consultation with the affected businesses and take the final BID proposition through an official referendum process. This referendum must achieve a majority vote across two key measures: one in pure numerical terms and one across the combined rateable value of the proposed BID area. If a positive result is achieved across both measures the BID can progress and all businesses within the defined area will become liable to pay the levy irrespective of whether and how they voted.

5.7.4 A BID proposal need not be purely retail focussed, some BIDs have included commercial properties above retail units (e.g. Camberley) and some BIDs have covered purely industrial areas (e.g. Manor Royal in Crawley). A successful BID can only operate for a maximum of 5 years before it must to go back to the businesses for a renewal referendum; this is called the ‘sunset’ clause.

5.7.5 At present all BIDs are based on the rateable value of a property and collected via the NNDR system, which in most cases is paid by the occupier or leaseholder. Although some property owners/landlords agree to make voluntary contributions to BID initiatives there is not currently a legal mechanism to include property owners within current BID initiatives. The Government is seeking to introduce legislation that will allow ‘property-owner’ BIDs to be created, the consultation on property-owner BIDs closed in September 2013 and legislation is expected to be introduced during 2014.

5.7.6 The BID legislation has allowed many towns and cities raise substantial revenue streams to support the local BID area. The variety of support and intervention is down to the original BID proposal but can include a number of measures including: enhanced security, enhanced cleaning regime, improvements to the public realm, marketing & promotional initiatives, local events, Christmas lights, floral decorations, enhanced signage, shopfront improvement schemes, loyalty cards, subsidised or free parking periods, employment of a dedicated town management team. The list is virtually endless but has to deliver the agreed outputs and outcomes of the

28

original BID proposal.

5.7.7 For smaller towns such as Caterham and Oxted the financial viability is less clear-cut as the potential total BID levy can be seriously eroded by the on-costs of collection via the NNDR system and the potential amortisation of the initial set-up and referendum costs (if charged). For example a medium sized market town with a BID area with a total rateable value of say £4m would be able to raise before costs £50,000 per annum on a 1.25% levy, £60,000 on a 1.5% levy and £70,000 on a 1.75% levy. (The average BID levy is currently between 1% and 2%). However in terms of the 5 year BID period this would represent £250,000 and £350,000 direct investment in the BID area.

5.7.8 The complexity of the BID legislation, the need to undertake a highly professional consultation and production of a compelling BID proposition should not be underestimated. Although the majority of BID referendums have been positive those, which have failed, have invariably been under resourced at the outset and failed to undertake the significant degree of groundwork needed prior to even considering pushing forward to a referendum.

14 5.7.9 Organisations such as British BIDs and the ATCM can provide support and guidance on the BID process, as well as an ever-growing number of commercial consultancies many of which have achieved significant success with achieving positive referendum results. Locally Mole Valley and Epsom & Ewell are also investigating BIDs for their town centres, there are possible synergies and economies of scale available if a number of geographically adjacent areas were to process together.

5.7.10 Options:

A: The emerging Caterham and Oxted BID groups are engaged with and given appropriate advice and assistance to help ascertain the feasibility of a town BID, if viable to help with the next-steps to commence the BID process.

B: Subject to BID viability the Council consider what assistance they can give in terms of costs and capacity required to undertake a BID referendum and if successful the on-going costs of BID levy collection.

C: If both BIDs are successful to investigate the practicalities and budget implications of supporting the BIDs with a shared BID/Town management function.

14 British BIDs http://www.britishbids.info and ATCM https://www.atcm.org/programmes/uk_bids/welcometoukbids

29

5.8 Caterham Digital Hub

5.8.1 Background: Caterham ahead of the national superfast broadband roll- out announced its intention to offer superfast (24mbps) and ultrafast (100mbps) connection speed as a superfast enabled ‘hub’ across a number of locations in and around the town. It secured £163,000 of Growing Enterprise Fund loan funding from Coast to Capital in 2012/13.

5.8.2 Current plans: Following discussions with Digital Caterham it appears that the combination of the commercial OpenReach roll-out of superfast infrastructure and the BDUK/SCC planned roll-out into the majority of non- commercial areas have somewhat reduced the need to independently install their own superfast/ultrafast infrastructure. BT appears to be providing to the current hub site a guaranteed superfast service, which currently meets most business needs. At present Digital Caterham have chosen not to draw down the £163,000 Growing Places loan funding15 , although are considering other locations that could benefit from investment in infrastructure outside the commercial/BDUK roll-out area.

5.8.3 The commercial roll-out of superfast broadband is due to complete over the coming months. The BDUK/SCC roll-out under the Superfast Surrey project is currently underway with the target to get a minimum of 15mbps availability to 99.7% of Surrey’s premises. The remaining 0.3% is likely to need alternative solutions to the Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC). Superfast Surrey is claiming that an additional 20,281 homes and commercial premises in Tandridge will be able to access fibre superfast broadband as part of the BDUK/SCC roll-out. Until OpenReach completes all the local surveys the exact extent of superfast availability will be unknown within the District. Current estimates indicate that the 99.7% aspiration may fall through practical and technical barriers.

5.8.4 Options:

A: Until an accurate picture of superfast coverage is established within the District we recommend close collaboration with the Superfast Surrey team.

B: Once the ‘not-spots’ are identified further investigation into local solutions either commercial or within BDUK framework will be possible.

5.9 Business Support & Engagement

5.9.1 The business survey demonstrates that across most sectors businesses within the District were able to access advice and support via existing

15 This could present a problem to Coast to Capital as Government is currently reviewing why LEPs have failed to get their Growing Places Funding spent and into growth initiatives. Coast to Capital may be forced to reallocate the £163k.

30

channels, mainly via a professional trade body (33%) or business advisor, mentor or consultant (28%). The traditional professional services of accountant, bank and solicitor were also popular sources of advice. District and County were only cited by 5% of respondents respectively.

5.9.2 However the survey was restricted to those businesses already trading, the support and advice needs for pre-start and start-up businesses can be markedly different. The test Banksearch data indicated that the District was 268 out of 326 Councils for start-ups in the first four months of 2014.

5.9.3 Most accountants and solicitors offer a free initial consultation for new businesses and fixed charges for the first year. Many banks have pre-start and start-up programmes either in-house or delivered by a partner agency.

5.9.4 The levels of direct business support provided by a local authority differ dramatically from area to area, ranging from some providing a virtual replacement BusinessLink service through to the light-touch approach adopted by some Councils.

5.9.5 In terms of the UK’s current growth aspirations, recovery from the recession and local need some degree of business support and direct engagement should be considered. However many external agencies and organisations can provide support services so it will be important to ensure that whatever the Council considers appropriate adds value and does not duplicate.

5.9.6 Coast to Capital LEP have identified business support as being an important part of their strategic proposition. In both their EUSIF and SEP plans (see 6.2.7 and 6.2.8) a number of business support initiatives are proposed, some new and some building on current successful initiatives being undertaken within the LEP area such as the ‘Be the Business’ programme supported by West Sussex County Council and ‘Business Navigator Growth Hub’ created by the LEP themselves16 .

5.9.7 Parallel to business support runs the need for local authorities to actively engage with their local business communities. This engagement can remain light-touch through regular business engagement events and annual business surveys, these can help inform Council policies and possible interventions and explore for potential joint working opportunities with the business community.

5.9.8 Options:

A: The Council investigate further what business advice is currently

16 Be the Business: http://www.bethebusiness.org Business Navigator: http://www.c2cbusiness.org.uk

31

available within the District and ensure that it is listed within their website with appropriate links. (This improves the search engine visibility).

B: The Council investigate the services available and costs of supporting a service provided by an external agency such as Enterprise First.

C: When finalised and core funded the Council investigate the services that will be available to ‘buy-into’ from the Local Enterprise Partnership.

D: The Council investigates a shared service provision with neighbouring authorities either across East Surrey or pan-Gatwick Diamond.

5.10 Review of Public Assets

5.10.1 To be confirmed following discussions with TDC Officers:

5.11 Rural Economy

5.11.1 Background: 94% of the District is classed as greenbelt, with over 60% of the District used for agriculture. The District has land within two AONBs: The Surrey Hills AONB to the north and the High Weald AONB in the south-eastern corner.

For a number of years there has been a significant diversification of land- use away from pure agriculture, forestry and horticulture with the introduction of commercial business units attracting many business sectors. Rural Tandridge is also the location of its two biggest commercial estates; Lambs Business Park and Hobbs Industrial Estate.

Other Rural Business Areas:

5 hectare temporary industrial site east of the A22 at Godstone operated by Balfour Beatty in connection with the M25 improvement works.

In addition to formal commercial units based in rural areas, there has been in-line with urban use a significant increase in both home based workers (employed by larger businesses but working from home) and home based businesses (self-employed or employed by their own business based at home). This home based activity can help rural communities through both social and economic factors.

5.11.2 Current situation: The diversification of rural areas will continue as landowners seek to maximise revenues from their assets and more people opt for either home based employment or home bases businesses. One very important element of infrastructure cited by numerous Government and independent reports is the need for reliable broadband connectivity.

32

The rural nature of Tandridge will present Superfast Surrey with one of its most challenging areas; the District is already cited as having the largest number of premises to be included within the scope of the project (20,281 premises).

5.11.3 The District has a significant rural area with a diverse economy outside traditional agriculture, horticulture and forestry. Rural areas suffer from additional barriers to growth such as isolation, poor transport links, poor broadband coverage and relative fragility of infrastructure and resilience to adverse weather conditions. The lower population density adds further barriers as availability of suitably skilled workforce and access to training.

5.11.4 Options:

A: All possible projects and interventions being considered should be ‘rural proofed’ to ensure the rural economy can benefit from outputs and outcomes e.g. business support is able to be delivered in rural as well as urban areas.

B: The economic benefits of rural initiatives such as development of woodfuel and biomass, rural land diversification schemes, agricultural and horticultural development projects are fully taken into consideration in-line with other environmental and land-use factors.

5.12 Visitor Economy

5.12.1 We reference later a previous volume and value study undertaken for Surrey in 2012 which indicates that the visitor economy is worth £60m to the economy, with 1.7 million day and overnight visitors.

5.12.2 Although not a tourist ‘destination’ a number of key attractions and venues were identified including Lingfield racing, a strong family leisure offer, a strong countryside offer with two national paths, a good selection of golf courses including one in the UK top-100 and a some notable four-star spa- hotels.

5.12.3 The availability quality accommodation is cited as being a county-wide issue for both leisure and business visitors. Surrey County Council is in the process of commissioning a county-wide accommodation study. This study will have the option for D&Bs to commission additional local research on the accommodation stock and latent need within their own area.

5.12.4 Options:

A: The District has not actively supported its visitor economy. Future planning policies to encourage the development of serviced

33

accommodation throughout the District should be considered. The nature of such accommodation is that it is often located in sensitive areas, which form part of the appeal, planning policies should recognise the benefits that overnight visitor spend can bring to the local economy and actively support the sector. Likewise tourist attractions are often situated in sensitive locations and need additional support to allow sustainable development to survive and grow their operation.

B: The District should help promote its visitor economy via membership and financial support of organisations such as Visit Surrey. To encourage business participation in such membership or promotions any Council support should be offered on a match-funding basis within certain parameters e.g. the cost to be featured in Visit Surrey 2015 was £1,000, the Council would pledge £500 if businesses match-funded this figure.

C: Joint working opportunities with other authorities, for example those who are also on the North Downs Way should be explored. The Council should proactively promote its own visitor economy offering by specific user-friendly promotional sections on the corporate website and produce at least an annual quality visitor guide.

D: The Council should consider extending the Surrey accommodation study to include a detailed review of Tandridge accommodation stock and latent demand for such within the District.

5.13 Capacity for Economic Development

5.13.1 It should be noted that at present TDC has no formal economic development capacity. All previous work has been undertaken within existing policy and planning resources. The question of future dedicated capacity bearing in mind the project implications of this report need to be considered.

5.13.2 Options:

A: The recruitment of a new resource or development of an existing resource within the Council should be considered.

B: The services of an economic development consultancy/consultant on a retained basic should be considered.

C: A joint resource shared between a number of local authority partners should be considered, possibly within East Surrey or Gatwick Diamond Initiative.

34

6 STR A TEG IC ISSU ES & O PTIO N S

6.1.1 Within the project brief we were asked to look at some specific strategic areas of interest to Tandridge District Council:

6.1.2 Strategic Growth Options:

• Local Enterprise Partnerships • Gatwick Diamond • Gatwick Airport Second Runway • East Surrey Districts & Boroughs

6.2 Local Enterprise Partnerships

6.2.1 Background: The Government announced the approval of 24 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in the Local Growth White Paper on 28 October 2010. A further 15 LEPs, including one covering the whole of London have subsequently been announced, taking the total to 39. All areas of England are now covered by a LEP. Surrey is covered by two LEPs: ‘Enterprise M3’ covering the north and west of the county (7 Districts & Boroughs) and ‘Coast to Capital’ covering the remaining 4 Districts and Boroughs in east Surrey, including Tandridge. The Leader of Surrey County Council sits on the Coast to Capital Board and the Deputy Leader sits on the Enterprise M3 Board.

6.2.2 The role of LEPs has evolved considerably over the last twelve months, with the Government placing additional responsibilities on giving greater emphasis to how local authorities should work with them to grow their local economy. This has included agreeing some further devolution of funding streams for transport, skills and housing to the LEPs for decision on how they are invested locally.

35

6.2.3 Coast to Capital LEP

The Coast to Capital LEP area encompasses all of the county of West Sussex, Brighton & Hove, Lewes, Croydon and four eastern Surrey districts (Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead and Tandridge). Within the area and partnership are two county councils, two unitary authorities, 12 district and borough authorities and the South Downs National Park Authority in addition to local businesses. It is one of the larger LEPs outside London, with just under 2 million residents and over 150,000 businesses and organisations. Coast to Capital have divided the LEP into five area partnerships:

1. Brighton, Hove, Lewes Partnership 2. Coastal West Sussex Partnership 3. Croydon Development & Cultural Partnership 4. Gatwick Diamond Initiative 5. Rural West Sussex Partnership

It should be noted that there is multiple D&B overlap with this area partnership structure e.g. Mid Sussex is represented within three partnerships. Also in terms of specific rural representation currently Mole Valley, Tandridge and Lewes are not members of the Rural Partnership even though are highly rural areas.

36

6.2.4 Local Growth Fund/Strategic Economic Plan

6.2.5 In June 2013, the Government announced the creation of a £20 billion Local Growth Fund to cover the period from 2015-2020, with £2bn allocated for 2015-2016. This figure includes some funds that have already been allocated to LEPs (including some of the local major transport scheme funding). The remainder of the Fund (approximately £1 billion) will be allocated on a competitive basis through a process of bidding and negotiation.

Competitive bids will be assessed on the quality of ‘Strategic Economic Plans’ (SEP) which LEPs have been tasked with developing and implementing. The Plans should set out the local economic priorities for the area and identify priority programmes and projects that will achieve their aims. The Strategic Economic Plans will form the basis of a ‘Local Growth Deal’ between the LEP and Government, which will determine how much Local Growth Fund each LEP will receive.

LEPs are also expected to use the Local Growth Deal discussion with Government to set out an economic case for additional freedoms and flexibilities for the local area. This is unlikely to take the form of additional devolved funding, but could include greater local influence over the delivery of national programmes.

Government guidance has outlined that the success of LEP bids for Local Growth Fund will be significantly influenced by the level of collaboration with local authorities. There is an expectation that local authorities will support LEPs through strong partnership working, robust arrangements for accountability, effective collaboration across the LEP area and pooling of economic development resources.

Local Transport Bodies (LTBs) were established in 2011 as a vehicle for Government to devolve local major transport scheme funding. LTBs were expected to identify and prioritise transport schemes that would enable economic growth. LTB funding streams were included in the Local Growth Fund announcement and Government expects LEPs to integrate LTB decision making structures into the governance structures for the wider Partnership. Coast to Capital have incorporated the LTBs into their governance structures and have integrated LTB priority schemes into the Strategic Economic Plans.

The timescales for the production of the Strategic Economic Plan and Local Growth Deal were very challenging. LEPs initially submitted draft versions of the Strategic Economic Plans. The final submissions were made on 31 March 2014. The Government will conclude the final assessment of plans by June 2014 and a Local Growth Fund offer will be

37

made to each LEP in early July 201417. LEPs will receive their portion of the Fund by April 2015.

6.2.6 A summary of the Coast to Capital Strategic Economic Plan is attached as an appendix to this report. This sets out the vision and objectives for the areas, with a brief overview of the emerging priority projects for Surrey. The C2C SEP sets out six strategic priorities, which are the basis on which the LEP will deliver growth see graphic below:

6.2.7 The SEP Bidding Process

6.2.8 Local Growth Deals offer the only opportunity to secure devolved responsibility and funding for economic priorities, including skills and transport. In order to maximise the opportunity for investment in Surrey the first step is to help both LEPs maximise the amount of Local Growth Fund they secure through the bidding process against the rest of the country. Accordingly the county council and districts and boroughs are working closely with both LEPs, helping to shape emerging priorities and playing an active role in collective decision making.

LEPs have provided a detailed breakdown of their bid to the Local Growth Fund as part of the draft Strategic Economic Plans. Coast to Capital’s bid was for £559m, with almost £400m to be allocated to transport projects. For comparison Enterprise M3 proposed a bid of £340m with approximately 50% to be spent on transport projects.

Importantly LEPs are required to demonstrate how the Local Growth Fund investment will generate leverage from other sources. There is an

17 LEPs were given confidential indications of their Growth Deal settlement on 16th June, official announcements on Growth Deal settlements will be made on 7th July 2014

38

expectation that external leverage (both public and private) will be considerable for Coast to Capital and Enterprise M3, as the Government considers both areas are already economically successful. The amount of leverage generated will be used as a criterion for assessing the quality of bids. The total amount of Local Growth Fund secured through the Growth Deal process will be announced in early July 2014.

Although the initial reaction for Government for both LEPs suggests that they have pitched their bids for Local Growth Fund well, it has been widely understood that the total call on the fund was three-times oversubscribed, with some LEPs adopting a ‘kitchen-sink’ approach and throwing all their shelved projects into the their SEP propositions. Also most recent feedback from Government is that the Growth Deal announcements in July will focus predominantly on initiatives that can be brought-forward in the 2015/16 financial year, with a possible annual bidding process for the later years of the Growth Fund allocation.

Surrey County Council and all districts and boroughs are working with LEPs to ensure that priority schemes in Surrey are included in the Strategic Economic Plans. As the LEPs move into the implementation stages of the Plans, all partners will be seeking to maximise the level of investment in Surrey, ensuring that priority projects are delivered, including transport, skills and business and enterprise support. Many councils are working to develop outline business cases for priority projects, which will be submitted to the respective LEPs later in 2014.

Early signs from Government are that in order to convince them to put significant additional resources into economically successful areas such as the South East it will be necessary to develop a convincing case both in terms of the need to support competitiveness against other parts of the world and in terms of meeting housing need and generating additional jobs and commercial development. These are difficult issues, but in all cases the major need is for additional investment in infrastructure in order to address the increasingly clear constraints which are affecting competitiveness and quality of life.

6.2.9 European Structural and Investment Funds (EUSIF/ESIF)

LEPs are also expected to take a lead role in the day-to-day management of European Structural and Investment Fund (EUSIF) for the 2014–2020 Programme. This new programme will combine European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), European Social Fund (ESF) and elements of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

The Funds are expected to drive ‘smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’ and will provide support to those areas with greatest need. The funds have

39

different uses, for example ERDF can be used to provide business and enterprise support, stimulate a knowledge-based economy or build sustainable communities. ESF is targeted at developing a skilled workforce and providing employment support opportunities (especially to disadvantaged communities), while EAFRD helps to improve the quality of life in rural areas, diversification of the rural economy and improve the environment of the countryside.

All LEPs in England have received a ‘notional’ allocation of European Structural and Investment Funds and have been tasked with developing a strategy to outline how they intend to spend the funds on priority areas. The strategy is expected to align with the Strategic Economic Plan.

The ESF & ERDF funds must attract 50% match funding, (there are greater flexibilities within EAFRD), this match can come from a range of sources including the public sector, the private sector or through national government programmes. The Government has encouraged LEPs to work with national ‘co-financing’ organisations, such as UK Trade and Investment, the Skills Funding Agency and the Department for Work and Pensions, to develop ‘opt-in’ agreements as a way to secure this match. Both LEPs in the Surrey area have agreed in principle to agreements with a number of co-financing organisations, but will also be looking to secure local match funding.

The final EUSIF strategies were submitted to Government on 31 January 2014 and presented a high level indication of how the funds will be spent with the main focus on business and enterprise support, innovation and employment and skills activities. There is a considerable amount of work needed by both LEPs to develop more detailed proposals, particularly around commissioning and tendering arrangements for projects and for sourcing local match funding.

The EUSIF allocations for Coast to Capital for the 2014–2020 period are:

Coast to Capital

Total ERDF and ESF Allocation EAFRD £57.62m £3.83m ERDF split ESF split £28.81m £28.81m

LEPs will not be responsible for managing or administering all the EUSIF funds. They will advise the Managing Authorities, including the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department of Work and Pensions and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on programmes and projects that fit with local priorities. These Managing

40

Authorities will have final approval of the successful programmes and will administer the funds, while ensuring compliance with European regulations.

6.2.10 Governance

The C2C LEP has been reviewing their governance arrangements, particularly as their focus moves from being primarily concerned with the development of strategy into overseeing a programme of activity using European and Growth Fund resources.

A key issue for Government is that there must be effective democratic accountability for Local Growth Fund money, and strong delivery mechanisms to deliver SEP actions. Government has also been clear that the actions in the SEP need to be backed up by robust governance arrangements which engage all local authorities within the area to ensure delivery through prompt and effective decision making. In particular Government is likely to be looking for such arrangements to promote:

• collective decision making by authorities • collaboration and greater co-ordination on economic development activities • aligning resources in support of the SEP.

From the local authority perspective, governance arrangements need to provide efficient, transparent and accountable decision making in relation to the use of public resources.

Coast to Capital has been working with the local authorities in their areas to develop arrangements that will give effect to these requirements. The current arrangement is to form a Joint Committee comprised of all of the local authorities in the area (plus the South Downs National Park). The Joint Committee would not be a sub-group of the LEP Board. It would have a clear and relatively narrow remit to articulate the collective local authority view to the C2C Board on the SEP and to formally agree it.

The Joint Committee would also review delivery of the Plan and agree adjustments with the LEP Board on an annual basis. Accountability for delivery would be delegated to area based structures reflecting the current emphasis in C2C of working through area partnerships. The precise number and nature of these area-based arrangements has yet to be agreed. Discussions have been held with each local authority on draft terms of reference for the new Joint Committee, which met in shadow form in late March to agree the SEP.

6.2.11 SEP Sign-off Process.

41

The Coast to Capital Board met in March to agree a near final version of the SEP Strategy. The shadow Joint Committee met on 25 March to give the local authority collective view on the plan, and final sign off was then made by the Executive Committee, which comprises a small number of Coast to Capital Board members. The Government will assess the level of local authority support for the SEP Plans as part of its assessment process of funding bids.

6.2.12 Options:

A: The Council continues to be actively engaged with the Coast to Capital LEP working through both East Surrey and Gatwick Diamond Initiative membership.

6.3 Gatwick Diamond Initiative

6.3.1 Background: The four East Surrey authorities are part of the Gatwick Diamond Initiative (GDI), an area designated for economic growth in the early 2000’s and formally designated in 2003 as one of SEEDA’s ‘diamonds for growth’. The GDI was incorporated within Coast to Capital’s area and given official status as an area partnership. The Gatwick Diamond is now made up of the following 7 Districts and Boroughs and 2 County Councils

Crawley Borough Council Epsom & Ewell Borough Council Horsham District Council Mid Sussex District Council Mole Valley District Council Reigate and Banstead Borough Council Tandridge District Council Surrey County Council West Sussex County Council

6.3.2 Current situation: The GDI now as an ‘area partnership’ of Coast to Capital benefits from this official LEP status, but also from building-up extensive business and public sector relationships over more than a ten- year period. Gatwick Airport’s second runway aspirations have increased the focus on the GDI economy and the potential benefits and challenges R2 could bring.

6.3.3 Option:

A: Tandridge District Council has over time had varying degrees of engagement with the GDI. With GDI’s official LEP area partnership status and the importance to East Surrey of the R2 decision we would

42

recommend continued pro-active engagement and membership of GDI.

6.4 Gatwick Airport Second Runway

6.4.1 Background: The coalition Government established the Airports Commission in 2012 to examine the need for additional UK airport capacity. The Commission is required to make recommendations to the Government about how this can be met in the short, medium and long term, considering the national, regional and local implications of any proposals.

Under the chairmanship of Sir Howard Davies, the Airports Commission invited proposals from airport operators for increasing airport capacity. Gatwick Airport Limited (GAL) the owners of the airport submitted three options for the configuration of an additional runway and associated infrastructure at the airport

The Airports Commission published an interim report in December 2013 and concluded that additional runway capacity is required in the South East. It shortlisted for further detailed appraisal a proposal for a second runway at Gatwick alongside two alternative proposals for an additional runway at Heathrow

Of the three runway alignment options put forward by GAL, the Commission indicated a preference for the wide spaced option that would allow both runways to be operated independently of each other.

Since the Airports Commission published its short list, GAL has been refining its ideas about an additional runway and how it would be operated alongside the existing runway. Between 4th April and 16th May it conducted a consultation and invited views on all three of its runway alignment options to inform its final proposal to the Commission.

In the meantime, GAL submitted updated proposals to the Airports Commission on 14th May. It will be using the results of its consultation to further refine its proposals and will provide additional information to the Airports Commission in July.

Although GAL presented three runway configuration options within the consultation, they have expressed a preference for one; Option 3 and it is widely believed that the Davis Commission will predominantly consider this option:

GAL Option 3: A new 3.4km runway 1,045 m to the south of the existing runway. Both runways used for landings and take-offs – mixed mode. Operations on the two runways are independent of each other. New

43

terminal between runways. Could handle up to 90 million passengers a year.

6.4.2 Economic Impact: There are currently a number of economic impact reports in circulation using widely differing methodology and timeframes. The GAL data indicates an additional 17,500 new jobs, a West Sussex County Council study indicates between 20,000 and 25,000 new jobs. However both estimates failed to take into account the ‘catalytic’ effect of the runway in terms of jobs created in secondary businesses directly and indirectly supporting the airport economy. It is estimated that this catalytic effect could double the 20,000 to 25,000 job estimate.

The question of new homes needed to support this growth has been one of the most contentious areas of discussion. It is widely believed that the GAL forecast of 7,000 new homes is an significant underestimate, the WSCC study estimating between 27,500 and 40,000 new home requirement. GAL representatives at recent events have played down these numbers believing that many potential employees will commute to the airport via the enhanced public transport links that form part of the overall proposal, especially from new housing developments in and around Croydon.

One area of discussion that has only recently been raised is the potential displacement of businesses located in the Option 3 development zone. The Gatwick Diamond has estimated that this could displace up to 2.4m sq ft of currently occupied space across many commercial use classes (820k B1 office, 1.55m B2/B8 warehouse/workshop). Although GAL has committed to accommodate some displaced businesses within the new airport campus, many that trade in non-aviation related activities will not be accommodated or be able to afford the higher rents that will be inevitably be sought in prime airport commercial space.

6.4.3 Options:

A: The Gatwick R2 issue will be subject to the Council’s own planning policy reporting and decision making process. However we would encourage that within this reporting the potential economic impact of R2 is fully explored in terms of current employment (direct, indirect and catalytic) and potential employment. Opportunities for District based businesses, opportunities to attract new businesses into the District, both as a result of Gatwick’s proximity and on an opportunity basic from the R2 displacement. The issue of new home demand is likely to be a controversial issue, one shared by all the adjacent D&Bs.

B: We would recommend that the Council remain proactively engaged with the whole R2 bidding process. Closely monitoring the developments

44

from both GAL and Davis Commission, if the Commission do opt for R2 as their preferred choice there will be significant impact on all GDI and surrounding areas. Coast to Capital LEP have stated that their Strategic Economic Plan will need a complete re-write if Gatwick R2 is selected.

6.5 East Surrey District’s & Boroughs

6.5.1 Background: Although the four East Surrey D&Bs have been part of the Gatwick Diamond Initiative geographic area for some time, the development of the Coast to Capital, Local Enterprise Partnership and need to have co-ordinated input into a number of strategically important projects such as EUSIF funding bid and the Strategic Economic Plan has precipitated closer-working between the four East Surrey D&Bs. Reigate & Banstead took the initial lead for East Surrey, although it was agreed that Mole Valley and Tandridge co-ordinated the detailed input on the SEP which formed the core submission into document submitted in March 2014.

6.5.2 Current situation: This closer working significantly increased the profile of the combined East Surrey D&Bs and ultimately resulted in the East Surrey area being identified as one of Coast to Capital’s ‘ Priority Growth Locations’ under the ‘East Surrey M25 Corridor’ banner. Within this area each D&B identified a number of priority interventions that could be eligible for LEP support; within Tandridge these were the Oxted Gasholder, Caterham Rose & Young site, plus a number of strategic transport initiatives including both road and rail projects.

6.5.3 Option:

A: The Surrey split between two LEP areas has precipitated a strengthening of relationships between the four East Surrey D&Bs. Cross- working on both EUSIF and SEP has demonstrated that the collective profile and chances of accessing potential opportunities has been enhanced. Through the various channels such as East Surrey Chief Executives, Leaders and Chief Executives, Economic Development Officers Forum etc this collaboration is continued.

45

7 AUDIT & SURVEY INTRODUCTION

7.1 Study background and aims

7.1.1 The data collection exercise carried out included an audit of businesses operating in Tandridge, a survey among a sample of these businesses, and consultations with a sample of business leaders and representatives. The methods used are described in section 1.2.

7.2 Methodology

Industry audit

7.2.1 Based on the labour market statistics compiled and published by the Office for National Statistics, there are 4,340 enterprises which are VAT registered and PAYE registered in Tandridge. A number of these businesses will own one or more properties but registered under the same trading name, for example a local convenience store may open a second convenience store in the area. Under the current ONS classification system for counting businesses, the second store will be defined as a local unit in addition to the main business. With the addition of local units, the total number of businesses is 4,785.

7.2.2 However, due to data protection legislation and the Statistical Disclosure Control which concerns safeguarding the confidentiality of the information that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) holds about people and businesses it is not possible to establish a record of each business including full postal address, the type of business and its standard industry classification.

7.2.3 Thus to establish the nature and scale of enterprise in Tandridge and the spatial distribution of industry sectors across the district it was necessary to carry out a detailed review of open sources of business intelligence to meet the objectives of this study whilst being very mindful to avoid the risk of identifying individuals from published statistics. In this report results are presented at the aggregate level by Standard Industry Classification and written feedback from businesses is provided only where permission for this has been gained. The full record of businesses addresses which we have pulled together from various sources is a confidential document to be used by the Council only.

7.2.4 To establish the nature and scale of Industry sectors operating in Tandridge, the exercise began with reviewing the Council’s business rates (NNDR) database. Business rates are charged on most non-domestic properties, e.g.:

46

• Shops • Offices • Pubs • Warehouses • Factories

7.2.5 The NNDR database included the address of 2,857 businesses. This is significantly short of the 4,700 VAT/PAYE known to be registered in the district. This implies the possibility that a proportion of business owners are registering for VAT/PAYE using a Tandridge address (this may be their residential address) but the actual business premise (for which it will pay business rates) is located outside the district. It also implies that a significant proportion of VAT registered businesses in Tandridge are self- employed ‘home-workers’ normally classed as ‘Home Based Businesses’ and may be exempt from business rates and thus omitted from the NNDR database.

7.2.6 We should also highlight that the purpose of the NNDR database is not to record businesses in Tandridge but a record of non-domestic property properties which have a rateable value and thus are required to pay business rates. Thus, the database includes mobile masts and billboards but as these are not enterprises they have been excluded from this exercise. Overall 23 mobile masts and 71 advertising billboard records were found in the Council’s business rates database and thus excluded (leaving 2,763 records).

7.2.7 Further enhancement of the database was thus required for it to provide the business profiling intelligence sought for this research exercise, not only to identify the businesses missing from the records available but also to establish the nature of the business. The records only provided the details of the name of the establishment and its address. Each business record therefore needed to be assigned a classification according to the nature of the business (e.g. bank, plumber, doctor) and its industry sector (e.g. Financial, Construction, Public Health).

7.2.8 It was also recognised that there would be omissions in the business rates database as certain properties are excluded such as fish farms, buildings used for training or welfare of disabled people, self-catering and holiday let accommodation which are let for less than 140 days per year.

7.2.9 Another potentially significant omission from the business rates database will be domestic properties which are used for home working. In most cases it would be unusual for the Valuation Office Agency to have given a rateable value to the part of house which is used for business purposes.

47

7.2.10 Also some business premises with multiple occupancy such as business centres, small offices or small light industrial units have premises with a single rateable value with the commensurate rates paid centrally by the landlord or managing agent, which are apportioned as part of the rent or service charge to the tenants.

7.2.11 To help in the assignment of business type and industry sector to each record, each 2,763 records was cross-referenced with commercially sourced businesses intelligence records from Thomson Local Business Search Directory. Business intelligence records obtained from commercial business search sources have the advantage of being classified by business type and Standard Industry Classification (SIC)18 .

7.2.12 The calibration with the Thomson’s database identified 1,644 matches and a business type and SIC description was assigned to these records. This left 1,119 records drawn from the business rates database for which business type and SIC was unknown.

7.2.13 Several searches were carried out using open online sources including companycheck.co.uk and general Google searches to gather sufficient details on each of the 1,119 records in order to establish the nature of the business and the industry sector it belonged to. Of these 1,119 records, we only had details of the name of the owner and the business address/telephone number for 320. Without a trading business name it was not possible to identify these business either online or though Company House records. Within the time-frame and budget of this study it was not possible to call each of these businesses where telephone numbers were available to establish the nature of the business.

7.2.14 Whilst a significant number of businesses from the Council’s NNDR business rates database were missing from the Thomson Local database, it did however, bring to light 611 additional businesses not on the business rates database. To be certain that these were bona fide businesses operating within the geographical boundaries of Tandridge each was checked using online open sources and found to be legitimate local businesses and were added to the overall database. In total the audit identified 3,374 Tandridge businesses19 with an additional 320 businesses known to pay business rates but where business type and industry is unknown (total of 3,698).

18 A Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) was first introduced into the United Kingdom in 1948 for use in classifying business establishments and other statistical units by the type of economic activity in which they are engaged. The classification provides a framework for the collection, tabulation, presentation and analysis of data and its use promotes uniformity.

19 This excludes places of public religious worship.

48

7.2.15 Inevitably there will be some currently trading that are ‘below the radar’ in terms of readily accessible information. It should be noted that many of the newer micro businesses now often trade via a mobile number and website without listing full address details. This we expect is for personal privacy reasons but in terms of creating a database adds additional barriers to ease of data collection.

7.2.16 Based on the research exercise carried out, of the 4,340 businesses registered in the district we have identified the business type and Standard Industry Classification of 3,374 of them.

7.2.17 We acknowledge that the figure of 3,374 is still short of the figure of 4,340 VAT/PAYE registered enterprises known to be operating in Tandridge. However, within the budget and time constraints we are confident that the audit produced provides a robust baseline and from which important insights into the spatial distribution of industry sectors and their relative size can be gleaned.

Industry data – business survey

7.2.18 Following the detailed scoping and business audit, we developed a survey format that collected the data on the profile and health of each industry sector.

7.2.19 To maximise the opportunities for feedback, we recommended a combination of online and targeted telephone surveys aiming to achieve a representative sample of at least 300 businesses.

7.2.20 The primary purpose of the telephone survey was to gather robust quantitative and insightful qualitative data on business performance so as to help understand the opportunities for, and barriers to, economic prosperity in Tandridge. The sample survey approach provides the ‘hard’ statistical data, which is essential for establishing the evidential baseline. As specified in the brief, the survey gathered data on the profile of the business (e.g. employment levels, turnover, market reach, use of digital communication) as well as business feedback on a host of operational and performance issues including business perceptions of the advantages and disadvantages of trading in Tandridge and barriers they have experienced or expect to experience hindering growth.

7.2.21 On making contact with the business, the interview was conducted with a senior decision-maker who was usually the owner or senior manager. If the interview could not be undertaken at the point of initial contact, interviewers sought to establish the best time to call-back to undertake the interview. Where this was unknown by the respondent, the call-back would

49

be made on a different day of the week and/or different time of day to maximise the chance of obtaining an interview.

7.2.22 We recommended that a sample of 300 would be large enough to provide results with a high level of statistical confidence. In the end we secured 340 telephone interviews supplemented by 60 online survey responses, totalling 400 responses. The heat map shown in section 8.2 show the geographic spread of the 340 telephone responses (on-line responses did not require specific location).

7.2.23 Where available and relevant, the results of the survey are compared to the Surrey Business Survey carried out in 2013 which involved a telephone survey of 1,300 businesses across the county. The results are drawn directly from the full report produced in 2014. However, it should be noted that the areas of comparison are relatively limited as most of the county level data is cross-tabulated by three broad categories – these are Higher Growth Businesses, Growing Micro Businesses and Declining Establishments. The focus of the Surrey wide survey is very much on business growth and innovation rather than on establishing a baseline profile of industry sectors and consequently sufficient baseline data on business composition and feedback by sector is not provided in the report to enable us to make like for like comparisons in all areas.

Industry feedback – industry consultation option

7.2.24 Following the completion of the business survey and formal adoption of the wider report there is the opportunity for Tandridge District Council to use this data to conduct in-depth interview research/group discussions with a select number of businesses, business networks and associations. These in-depth interviews/focus groups could be used to delve deeper with individual businesses and groups of businesses (e.g. local business networks) a host of issues which impact on performance and growth.

50

7.3 Outline of report

7.3.1 We begin in Chapter 8 by presenting the results of the industry audit. The numerical list of business records for each sector and business type is presented in tabular form.

7.3.2 In Chapter 9 we present the results of the business survey, which give a snapshot of the issues facing businesses and insight into their perceptions of doing business in Tandridge.

7.3.3 In Chapter 10 we focus on the visitor economy within the District.

7.3.4 In Appendix 1 we provide a copy of the survey

7.3.5 The audit of businesses will be provided in an Excel spreadsheet format.

We recommend that for FoI purposes this database is classed as commercially sensitive as may contain details of unincorporated businesses that could be subject to data protection restrictions.

51

8 BUSINESS AUDIT

8.1 Business overview

8.1.1 According to ONS figures there are 4,340 individual enterprises in Tandridge. A number of these businesses will own one or more properties but registered under the same trading name, for example a local convenience store may open a second convenience store in the area. Under the current ONS classification system for counting businesses, the second store will be defined as a local unit in addition to the main business. With the addition of local units, the total number of businesses is 4,785.

8.1.2 Drawing on the results of a sample survey of employees from these businesses (Business Register Employment Survey (BRES), the ONS estimate that 91% of these businesses are micro-businesses – that is they have less than 10 employees.

8.1.3 The business count data presented in Table (i) is drawn from the ONS official labour market statistics and reveals that the relative proportion of businesses in each of the 4 broad size bands is not dissimilar to the picture at county and regional level.

8.1.4 As a proportion of the total, there are slightly fewer medium size businesses (>50 employees) in Tandridge compared to the proportion at county and regional level but the difference is not great.

Table (i): Business counts – Tandridge compared to Surrey and South East Tandridge Surrey South East

Enterprises Number Proportion Proportion Proportion Micro (0 to 9) 3,960 91.2% 90.4% 89.1% Small (10 to 49) 325 7.5% 7.7% 8.9% Medium (50 to 249) 40 0.9% 1.5% 1.6% Large (250+) 10 0.2% 0.4% 0.4% Total 4,340 - - Local Units Micro (0 to 9) 4,205 87.9% 86.3% 84.2% Small (10 to 49) 490 10.2% 11.0% 12.8% Medium (50 to 249) 80 1.7% 2.4% 2.7% Large (250+) 10 0.2% 0.3% 0.4% Total 4,785 Source: Office of National Statistics. Business size is based on number of employees. Employee numbers are estimated from findings of the Business Register Employment Survey (BRES).

8.1.5 The business profile we present in the following sections are based on the 3,374 records we have gathered where the business type and SIC

52

classification was obtainable. We begin by establishing the overall size of each sector based on the 20 Standard Industry Codes. Postcode data is also used to map the spatial distribution of the business in Tandridge.

8.1.6 Tabular findings are presented in sections 3.3 to 3.22. The results are presented for each of the 20 UK SIC and its associated sub-classes (or divisions). Each UK SIC is broken down into divisions based on a hierarchical five digit system. So for example in manufacturing, the manufacture of textiles (division 13) will be broken down as follows:

Division 13 Manufacture of textiles Group 13.9 Manufacture of other textiles Class 13.93 Manufacture of carpet and rugs Subclass 13.93/1 Manufacture of woven or tufted carpets and rugs.

8.2 Spatial distribution of businesses

8.2.1 The heat maps below show the spatial distribution of the business audit and the spatial distribution of the 340 telephone respondents.

Spatial Distribution of Businesses Spatial Distribution of Telephone Responses

53

8.3 Relative size of each sector

8.3.1 With 479 businesses, the largest industry sector operating in Tandridge is Wholesale and Retail Trade (14.2%). This is followed by Construction (14.2%)

Table 1: Relative size of industry sectors in Tandridge Rank SIC Sector Number Proportion 1 Wholesale & Retail Trade 479 14.2% 2 Construction 450 13.3% 3 Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities 318 9.4% 4 Accommodation & Food Service Activities 293 8.7% 5 Arts, Entertainment & Recreation 266 7.9% 6 Manufacturing 244 7.2% 7 Other Service Activities 223 6.6% 8 Administrative & Support Service Activities 190 5.6% 9 Human Health & Social Work Activities 145 4.3% 10 Education 124 3.7% 11 Repair of Motor Vehicles & Motorcycles 110 3.3% 12 Information & Communication 107 3.2% 13 Transportation & Storage 106 3.1% 14 Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing 105 3.1% 15 Real Estate Activities 89 2.6% 16 Financial & Insurance Activities 68 2.0% 17 Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management & Remedial Activities 25 0.7% 18 Public Administration & Defence 22 0.7% 19 Electricity, Gas, Steam & Air Conditioning Supply 7 0.2% 20 Mining & Quarrying 3 0.1% Total Tandridge businesses 3,374 100%

8.3.2 There are a few differences in the relative proportion of each industry sector when compared to the county (see Fig i overleaf). The Surrey Business Survey report groups the 20 industry sectors into 10 broad sectors and when a like for like comparison is made with the results of the Tandridge audit, it show that the Arts, Entertainment & Recreation/ Other Service Activities broad industry sector is proportionately larger in Tandridge (15%) compared with the county (8%). The Construction sector is also larger in Tandridge (17%) than in the county (11%).

8.3.3 However, as a proportion of all sectors Tandridge has fewer Information & Communication businesses (3% compared to 10% in the county as a whole). A fifth of all businesses at county level are classified as Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities compared to only 9% in Tandridge.

8.3.4 The relative sizes of the other industry sectors are more in line with the picture at county level.

54

8.3.5 In the following sections of the report we present the number of businesses found under each of the 20 Standard Industry Classifications. A full list of designation by Business Type (e.g. medical practice, electricians, insurance companies) and SIC is provided in Appendix 1.

8.3.6 Direct comparison with the relative size of each industry sector is limited given that the available data drawn from the Surrey Business Survey report lumps a number of sectors into broader industry groupings.

8.4 Accommodation & Food Service Activities

8.4.1 This industry classification accounts for 8.7% of the 20 industry sectors (in 4th rank) and includes the provision of short-stay accommodation for visitors and other travellers and food and beverage serving activities providing complete meals or drinks fit for immediate consumption, whether in traditional restaurants, self-service or take-away restaurants, whether as permanent or temporary stands with or without seating.

Table 2: Accommodation & food service activities’ Count of SIC_Description Accommodation & Food Service Activities 12 Bars 94 Camping sites, including caravan sites 8 Catering 17 Hotels and motels, with restaurant 14 Other provision of lodgings not elsewhere classified 2 Restaurants 128 Retail sale of bread, cakes, flour confectionery and sugar confectionery 10 Retail sale of meat and meat products 8 Grand Total 293

55

8.4.2 The largest sub-sector here is Restaurants which also includes take-away and fast food outlets (111 businesses). Visitor accommodation is relatively low at 36 establishments. The 2012 Surrey Visitor Economy Audit identified 493 accommodation establishments across Surrey so the 36 in Tandridge accounts for only 7% of the county total.

8.5 Administrative & Support Service Activities

th 8.5.1 This sector accounts for 5.6% of the 20 industry sectors (8 rank) and includes a variety of activities that support general business operations including:

Rental and leasing activities Employment activities Travel agency, tour operator and other reservation service and related activities Security and investigation activities Services to buildings and landscape activities Office administrative, office support and other business support activities

Table3: Administrative & Support Service Activities Count of SIC_Description Activities of business and employers organisations 1 Activities of other membership organisations not elsewhere classified 20 Activities of travel agencies and tour operators; tourist assistance activities not elsewhere classified 14 Business and management consultancy activities 4 Cleaning activities 15 Data processing 2 Database activities 6 Investigation and security activities 20 Labour recruitment and provision of personnel 15 Legal activities 1 Motion picture projection 2 Other building and industrial cleaning activities 7 Other business activities not elsewhere classified 4 Packaging activities 1 Pre-press activities 19 Printing not elsewhere classified 3 Private households with employed persons 5 Recycling of non-metal waste and scrap 1 Renting and leasing of office machinery 2 Renting of construction and civil engineering machinery and equipment 16 Renting of other land transport equipment 1 Renting of other machinery and equipment not elsewhere 1

56

classified Renting of personal and household goods not elsewhere classified 8 Repair not elsewhere classified 4 Repair of electrical household goods 10 Repair of watches, clocks and jewellery 1 Secretarial and translation activities 1 Washing and dry cleaning of textile and fur products 6 (blank) Grand Total 190

8.6 Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing

th 8.6.1 This sector accounts for 3.1% of the 20 industry sectors (14 rank) and includes the exploitation of vegetable and animal natural resources, comprising the activities of growing crops, raising and breeding animals, harvesting timber and other plants, animals or animal products from a farm or their natural habitats.

8.6.2 The largest group here is Agricultural service activities and this sub-sector includes a range of businesses from tree surgeons, agricultural contractors, and turf suppliers

Table 4: Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing Count of SIC_Description Agricultural service activities 35 Aquaculture 1 Farming of cattle, dairy farming 1 Farming of poultry 2 Forestry and logging related service activities 16 Greengrocers & Fruit Sellers 1 Growing of cereals and other crops not elsewhere classified 2 Growing of crops combined with farming of animals (mixed farming) 7 Growing of fruit, nuts, beverage and spice crops 1 Growing of vegetables, horticultural specialities and nursery products 5 Other farming of animals 33 Renting of other machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified 1 Grand Total 105

8.7 Arts, Entertainment & Recreation

th 8.7.1 This sector accounts for 7.9% of the 20 industry sectors (5 rank) and includes a wide range of activities catering for various cultural, entertainment and recreational interests of the general public, including live performances, operation of museum sites, gambling, sports and recreation activities.

57

8.7.2 The largest sub-sector here is Activities of Sport Clubs (50 clubs); however, the number is likely to be an under-representation of all sport clubs across Tandridge as many will be run on an informal basis, sometimes from a person’s home and not registered as a business.

Table5: Arts, Entertainment & Recreation Count of SIC_Description Activities of Sports clubs 59 Angling & Sports Fishing 3 Architectural and engineering activities and related technical consultancy 1 Artistic and literary creation and interpretation 25 Arts, Entertainment & Recreation 2 Botanical and zoological gardens and nature reserves activities 6 Fair and amusement park activities 3 Finishing of textiles 4 Fishing 1 Gambling and betting activities 6 Library and archives activities 10 Maintenance and repair of office, accounting and computing machinery 1 Motion picture and video distribution 1 Motion picture and video production 3 Motion picture projection 2 Museum activities 2 Operation of arts facilities 9 Operation of historical sites and buildings and similar visitor attractions 2 operation of sport facilities 1 Operation of sports arenas and stadiums 4 Other entertainment activities not elsewhere classified 20 Other human health activities 1 Other recreational activities not elsewhere classified 28 Other retail sale in specialised stores 2 Other sporting activities 58 Physical well-being activities 6 Sea and coastal water transport 1 Wholesale of clothing and footwear 1 Grand Total 262

8.8 Construction

nd 8.8.1 This sector accounts for 13.3% of the 20 industry sectors (2 rank) and includes general construction and specialised construction activities for buildings and civil engineering works. It includes new work, repair, additions and alterations, the erection of prefabricated buildings or structures on the site and also construction of a temporary nature.

58

8.8.2 General construction is the construction of entire dwellings, office buildings, stores and other public and utility buildings, farm buildings etc., or the construction of civil engineering works such as motorways, streets, bridges, tunnels, railways, airfields, harbours and other water projects, irrigation systems, sewerage systems, industrial facilities, pipelines and electric lines, sports facilities etc. Also included is the repair of buildings and civil engineering works.

Table 6: Construction Count of SIC_Description Construction of highways, roads, airfields and sport facilities 10 Construction of water projects 2 Demolition and wrecking of buildings; earth moving 6 Erection of roof covering and frames 27 Floor and wall covering 17 General construction of buildings and civil engineering works 131 Installation of electrical wiring and fittings 43 Insulation work activities 2 Joinery installation 9 Other building completion 27 Other building installation 24 Other construction work involving special trades 14 Painting and glazing 59 Plastering 10 Plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation 43 Renting of construction and civil engineering machinery and equipment 25 Specialist construction activities 1 Grand Total 450

8.8.3 By far the largest sub-sector here is General construction of buildings and civil engineering works and is largely made up of building firms.

8.9 Education

8.9.1 This industry classification accounts for 3.6% of the 20 industry sectors (10th rank) and includes education at any level or for any profession. The instruction may be oral or written and may be provided by radio, television, Internet or via correspondence.

8.9.2 It includes education by the various institutions in the regular school system at its different levels as well as adult education, literacy programmes etc. Also included are military schools and academies, prison schools etc. at their respective levels. It includes public as well as private education.

59

Table 7: Education Count of SIC_Description Adult and other education not elsewhere classified 39 Driving school activities 16 General secondary education 27 Higher education 1 Primary education 37 Private households with employed persons 3 Technical and vocational secondary education 1 Grand Total 124

8.10 Electricity, Gas, Steam & Air Conditioning Supply

8.10.1 This industry classification accounts for only 0.2% of the 20 industry sectors (19th rank) and includes the activity of providing electric power, natural gas, steam, hot water and the like through a permanent infrastructure (network) of lines, mains and pipes. It includes the distribution of electricity, gas, steam, hot water and the like in industrial parks or residential buildings.

8.10.2 Also included is the provision of steam and air-conditioning supply but not the operation of water and sewerage utilities.

Table 8: Electricity, Gas, Steam & Air Conditioning Supply Count of SIC_Description Service activities incidental to oil and gas extraction excluding surveying 6 Production and distribution of electricity 1 Grand Total 7

8.11 Financial & Insurance Activities

8.11.1 This industry classification accounts for 2.6% of the 20 industry sectors (16th rank) and includes financial service activities (e.g. central banking), including insurance, reinsurance and pension funding activities, and activities to support financial services. It also includes the activities of holding assets, such as activities of holding companies and the activities of trusts, funds and similar financial entities.

8.11.2 The largest sub-sector is Activities auxiliary to financial intermediation not elsewhere classified (29 businesses) and this includes financial advisors and financial services.

Table 9: Financial & Insurance Activities Count of SIC_Description Activities auxiliary to financial intermediation not elsewhere classified 30 Activities auxiliary to insurance and pension funding 6 Activities of holding company 5 Administration of financial markets 1 Banks & Financial Institutions 12

60

Central banking 1 Life insurance 4 Non-life insurance 2 Other credit granting 6 pension funding 1 Grand Total 68

8.12 Human Health & Social Work Activities

th 8.12.1 This industry classification accounts for 4.3% of the 20 industry sectors (9 rank) and includes the provision of health and social work activities. It covers a wide range of activities, from health care provided by trained medical professionals in hospitals and other facilities, to residential care activities that still involve a degree of health care activities and to social work activities not involving the services of health care professionals.

8.12.2 The largest sub-sector is Other human health activities (48 businesses) and this includes professions such as osteopaths, physiotherapists, speech & language therapists, and chiropodists.

Table 10: Human Health & Social Work Activities Count of SIC_Description Dental practice activities 15 Dispensing chemists 13 Hospital activities 7 Medical practice activities 11 Other business activities not elsewhere classified 1 Other human health activities 48 Social work activities with accommodation 29 Social work activities without accommodation 21 Grand Total 145

8.13 Information & Communication

8.13.1 This industry classification accounts for 3.2% of the 20 industry sectors (12th rank) and includes the production and distribution of information and cultural products, the provision of the means to transmit or distribute these products, as well as data or communications, information technology activities and the processing of data and other information service activities. The main components are publishing activities, including software publishing, motion picture and sound recording activities, radio and TV broadcasting and programming activities, telecommunications activities, information technology activities, and other information service activities.

8.13.2 The largest sub-sector is Software consultancy and supply which accounts for 30% of the total.

61

Table 11: Information & Communication Count of SIC_Description Aerials 7 Audio-Visual Production & Presentation Services 1 Computer Aided Design 1 Computer Consultants 10 Computer Games 1 Computer Networking & Cabling 1 computer services 1 computer software 8 Computer Support 12 Computer Systems & Software (Development) 9 Computer Systems & Software (Sales) 1 Greeting Card Publishers & Wholesalers 1 Information services 6 Internet Publishers 1 Internet Services 3 Mobile Phones 1 Music Publishers 1 Network & Data Communications 4 Newspaper & Magazine Publishers 1 Publishers' Services 5 radio broadcasting 1 software publicaion 1 Telecommunication Consultants 4 Telecommunication Engineers 1 Telecommunication Services 6 Television & Radio Production Services 1 Video Production Companies 3 Web Site Design 15 Grand Total 107

8.14 Manufacturing

th 8.14.1 This industry classification accounts for 7.2% of the 20 industry sectors (6 rank) and includes the physical or chemical transformation of materials, substances, or components into new products. The materials, substances, or components transformed are raw materials that are products of agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining or quarrying as well as products of other manufacturing activities. Substantial alteration, renovation or reconstruction of goods is also generally considered to be manufacturing.

8.14.2 Manufacture of builders' carpentry and joinery of metal is the largest sub- sector and includes the manufacture of a wide range of mainly wooden products including fences, doors, and window frames.

62

Table 12: Manufacturing Count of SIC_Description 1 Aluminium production 3 Casting of iron 1 Forging, pressing, stamping and roll forming of metal; powder metallurgy 3 Manufacture of aircraft and spacecraft 3 Manufacture of bodies (coachwork) for motor vehicles; manufacture of trailers and semi-trailers 3 Manufacture of bread; manufacture of fresh pastry goods and cakes 10 Manufacture of bricks, tiles and construction products, in baked clay 6 Manufacture of builders' carpentry and joinery 26 Manufacture of builders' carpentry and joinery of metal 7 Manufacture of carpets and rugs 1 Manufacture of cement 1 Manufacture of ceramic household and ornamental articles 6 Manufacture of chairs and seats 8 Manufacture of concrete products for construction purposes 2 Manufacture of cordage, rope, twine and netting 1 Manufacture of electricity distribution and control apparatus 5 Manufacture of electronic valves and tubes and other electronic components 6 Manufacture of furnaces and furnace burners 3 Manufacture of games and toys 2 Manufacture of homogenised food preparations and dietetic food 2 Manufacture of instruments and appliances for measuring, checking, testing, navigating and other purposes, except industrial process control equipment 1 Manufacture of invalid carriages 2 Manufacture of jewellery and related articles not elsewhere classified 4 Manufacture of lifting and handling equipment 5 Manufacture of lighting equipment and electric lamps 1 Manufacture of locks and hinges 11 Manufacture of luggage, handbags and the like, saddlery and harness 2 Manufacture of machinery for food, beverage and tobacco processing 3 Manufacture of machinery for mining. quarrying and construction 2 Manufacture of machinery for paper and paperboard production 1 Manufacture of made-up textile articles, except apparel 4 Manufacture of mattresses 1 Manufacture of medical and surgical equipment and orthopaedic appliances 2 Manufacture of metal structures and parts of structures 4 Manufacture of motorcycles 1 Manufacture of musical instruments 4 Manufacture of non-domestic cooling and ventilation equipment 7 Manufacture of non-electric domestic appliances 1 Manufacture of office machinery 6 Manufacture of optical instruments and photographic equipment 4 Manufacture of other chemical products not elsewhere classified 2 Manufacture of other fabricated metal products not elsewhere classified 7 Manufacture of other food products not elsewhere classified 1

63

Manufacture of other furniture 6 Manufacture of other kitchen furniture 1 Manufacture of other office and shop furniture 18 Manufacture of other outerwear 1 Manufacture of other products of wood 1 Manufacture of other products of wood; manufacture of articles of cork, straw and plaiting materials 1 Manufacture of other special purpose machinery not elsewhere classified 2 Manufacture of other wearing apparel and accessories not elsewhere classified 1 Manufacture of paper and paperboard 1 Manufacture of perfumes and toilet preparations 1 Manufacture of prepared pet foods 2 Manufacture of ready-mixed concrete 1 Manufacture of rubbber products 1 Manufacture of sports goods 1 Manufacture of television and radio receivers, sound or video recording or reproducing apparatus and associated goods 5 Manufacture of television and radio transmitters and apparatus for line telephony and line telegraphy 5 Manufacture of watches and clocks 2 Manufacture of wooden containers 1 Other manufacturing not elsewhere classified 17 Grand Total 244

8.15 Mining & Quarrying

8.15.1 Mining and quarrying accounts for only 0.1% (3 businesses) of the 20 industry sectors (20th rank) and include the extraction of minerals occurring naturally as solids (coal and ores), liquids (petroleum) or gases (natural gas). It also includes supplementary activities aimed at preparing the crude materials for marketing, for example, crushing, grinding, cleaning, drying, sorting, concentrating ores, liquefaction of natural gas and agglomeration of solid fuels.

Table 13: Mining & Quarrying Number Quarrying of stone for construction 2 Extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas 1 Total 3

8.16 Other Service Activities

8.16.1 This industry classification (as a residual category) accounts for 6.6% of the 20 industry sectors (7th rank) and includes the activities of membership organisations, the repair of computers and personal and household goods and a variety of personal service activities not covered elsewhere in the classification.

64

8.16.2 The largest sub-sector accounting for 24% of all businesses in this sector is Hairdressing and other beauty treatment.

Table 14: Other Service Activities Count of SIC_Description Activities of business and employers organisations 1 Activities of other membership organisations not elsewhere classified 12 Activities of political organisations 1 Activities of religious organisations 12 Animal husbandry service activities, except veterinary activities 14 Cargo handling 2 Clubs & Associations 26 Fair and amusement park activities 3 Funeral and related activities 7 Gambling and betting activities 3 Hairdressing and other beauty treatment 55 Industrial cleaning 1 Maintenance and repair of office, accounting and computing machinery 6 Operation of sports arenas and stadiums 1 Other business activities not elsewhere classified 2 Other entertainment activities not elsewhere classified 2 Other human health activities 10 Other passenger land transport 1 Other recreational activities not elsewhere classified 10 Other service activities not elsewhere classified 16 Physical well-being activities 17 Private households with employed persons 2 Renting and leasing of other machinery, equipment and tangible goods n.e.c. 1 Social work activities without accommodation 2 Washing and dry cleaning of textile and fur products 13 Funeral services 2 Other agricultural service activities 1 Grand Total 223

8.17 Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities

rd 8.17.1 This industry classification accounts for 9.4% of the 20 industry sectors (3 rank) and includes specialised professional, scientific and technical activities. These activities require a high degree of training, and make specialised knowledge and skills available to users. It includes:

Legal and accounting activities Activities of head offices; management consultancy activities Architectural and engineering activities; technical testing and analysis Scientific research and development Advertising and market research

65

Other professional, scientific and technical activities Veterinary activities

8.17.2 The largest sub-sector is Architectural and engineering activities and related technical consultancy which accounts for 29% of all businesses in this sector and includes professions such as, design consultants, engineers and architects.

Table 16: Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities Count of SIC_Description Accounting, book keeping and auditing activities; tax consultancy 75 Activities auxiliary to insurance and pension funding 1 activities of head office 2 Advertising 11 Architectural and engineering activities and related technical consultancy 89 BLACKBERRY ROAD 1 Business and management consultancy activities 29 General construction of buildings and civil engineering works 3 Legal activities 13 management consultancy 4 Market research and public opinion polling 4 Other business activities not elsewhere classified 28 Other supporting water transport activities 1 Photographic activities 20 Research and experimental development on natural sciences and engineering 7 Technical testing and analysis 21 Veterinary activities 9 Grand Total 318

8.18 Public Administration & Defence

8.18.1 This industry classification accounts for 0.7% of the 20 industry sectors (18th rank) and includes the enactment and judicial interpretation of laws and their pursuant regulation, as well as the administration of programmes based on them, legislative activities, taxation, national defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and the administration of government programmes.

8.18.2 This also includes compulsory social security activities.

Table 17: Public Administration & Defence Count of SIC_Description Compulsory social security activities 1 Defence activities 1 Fire service activities 3 General (overall) public service activities 10 Public order & safety activities 1

66

Regulation of the activities of providing health care, education, cultural services and other social services, excl social security 6 Grand Total 22

8.19 Real Estate

8.19.1 This industry classification accounts for 2.6% of the 20 industry sectors (15th rank) and includes acting as lessors, agents and/or brokers in one or more of the following: selling or buying real estate, renting real estate, providing other real estate services such as appraising real estate or acting as real estate escrow agents.

Table 18: Real estate Count of SIC_Description Development and selling of real estate 38 Letting of own property 7 Management of real estate on a fee or contact basis 11 Real estate agencies 32 Grand Total 88

8.20 Transportation & Storage

8.20.1 This industry classification accounts for 3.1% of the 20 industry sectors (13th rank) and includes the provision of passenger or freight transport, whether scheduled or not, by rail, pipeline, road, water or air and associated activities such as terminal and parking facilities, cargo handling, storage etc. Included in this section is the renting of transport equipment with driver or operator. Also included are postal and courier activities.

Table 19: Transportation & storage Count of SIC_Description Activities of other transport agencies 8 Freight transport by road 10 National post activities 10 Other passenger land transport 7 Other scheduled passenger land transport 4 Other service activities not elsewhere classified 1 Other supporting air transport activities 15 Other supporting land transport activities 9 Passenger land transport 1 Rental of land transport 2 Sea and coastal water transport 1 Storage and warehousing 17 Taxi operation 21 Grand Total 106

67

8.21 Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management & Remedial Activities

8.21.1 This industry classification accounts for only 0.8% of the 20 industry sectors (17th rank) and includes activities related to the management (including collection, treatment and disposal) of various forms of waste, such as solid or non-solid industrial or household waste, as well as contaminated sites. Activities of water supply are also grouped in this section, since they are often carried out in connection with, or by units also engaged in, the treatment of sewage.

Table 20: Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management & Remedial Activities Number Collection, purification and distribution of water 5 Sewage and refuse disposal, sanitation and similar activities 20 Total 25

8.22 Wholesale and retail trade, including motor trade

8.22.1 This industry classification accounts for 14.2% of the 20 industry sectors (the largest sector, 1st rank) and includes wholesale and retail sale of any type of goods, and the supply of services incidental to the sale of merchandise.

8.22.2 Also included in this section are the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles which accounts for 3.4% of the 20 industry sectors.

Table 21: Public Administration & Defence,incl Motor Vehicles & Motorcycles Count of SIC_Description Agents involved in the sale of a variety of goods 2 Agents involved in the sale of agricultural raw materials, live animals, textile raw materials and semi-finished goods 2 Agents involved in the sale of food, beverages and tobacco 1 Agents involved in the sale of fuels, ores, metals and industrial chemicals 1 Agents involved in the sale of furniture, household goods, hardware and ironmongery 3 Agents involved in the sale of machinery, industrial equipment, ships and aircraft 2 Agents involved in the sale of timber and building materials 21 Agents specialising in the sale of particular products or ranges of products not elsewhere classified 7 Agents specialized in the sale of other particular products 1 Finishing of textiles 1 Forestry and logging related service activities 1 Non-specialised wholesale trade 3 Non-specialised wholesale trade 1 Other business activities not elsewhere classified 1 Other business support service activities 2 Other non-store retail sale 3 Other recreational activities not elsewhere classified 2 Other retail in specialised stores 6 Other retail sale in non-specialised stores 19

68

Other retail sale in specialised stores 95 Other wholesale 9 Retail sale in non-specialised stores with food, beverages or tobacco predominating 29 Retail sale of alcoholic and other beverages 3 Retail sale of antiques including antique books in stores 2 Retail sale of automotive fuel 9 Retail sale of books, newspapers and stationary 24 Retail sale of bread, cakes, flour confectionery and sugar confectionery 1 Retail sale of clothing 30 Retail sale of clothing in specialised stores 4 Retail sale of computers, peripheral units and software in specialised stores 3 Retail sale of electrical household appliances and radio and television goods 4 Retail sale of fireworks 1 Retail sale of footwear and leather goods 10 Retail sale of fruit and vegetables 7 Retail sale of furniture, lighting equipment and household articles not elsewhere classified 19 Retail sale of garage doors 2 Retail sale of hardware, paints and glass 4 Retail sale of jewellery 3 Retail sale of kitchens 9 Retail sale of mobile telephones in specialised stores 3 Retail sale of other second-hand goods in stores 2 Retail sale of textiles 14 Retail sale via mail order houses 2 Retail sale via mail order houses or via Internet 1 Retails sale of textiles 3 Sale of motor vehicle parts and accessories 14 Sale of motor vehicles 31 Sale, maintenance and repair of motorcycles and related parts and accessories 6 Wholesale of alcoholic and other beverages 1 Wholesale of chemical products 3 Wholesale of clothing and footwear 3 Wholesale of dairy products, eggs and edible oils and fats 1 Wholesale of flowers and plants 2 Wholesale of fruit and vegetables 1 Wholesale of hardware, plumbing and heating equipment and supplies 2 Wholesale of hides, skins and leather 2 Wholesale of live animals 16 Wholesale of metals and metal ores 1 Wholesale of other food including fish, crustaceans and molluscs 1 Wholesale of other household goods 3 Wholesale of other machinery & equipment 2 Wholesale of other office machinery and equipment 3 Wholesale of pharmaceutical goods 2 Wholesale of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels and related products 3

69

Wholesale of textiles 2 Wholesale of waste and scrap 5 Wholesale of wood, construction materials and sanitary equipment 3 Grand Total 479

Table 21b: Repair of Motor Vehicles & Motorcycle Count of SIC_Description Maintenance and repair of motor vehicles 110

8.23 Rural based businesses

8.23.1 In addition to the baseline audit, a further business search was carried out to establish the number of businesses located in the rural parts of Tandridge. This required filtering business records according the ‘Rural Urban Classification’ by output area, which goes down to postcode unit level20 .

8.23.2 A record of all rural postcodes for Surrey was available to us from an earlier study carried out for Surrey County Council and was used to identify rural postcodes from the Tandridge postcode list. Once this was run through the baseline database it identified 1,650 rural businesses.

Table 22: Rural based businesses Count of SIC Wholesale & Retail Trade 229 Construction 195 Other Services 183 Manufacturing 145 Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities 133 Arts, Entertainment & Recreation 123 Accommodation & Food Service Activities 122 Repair of Motor Vehicles & Motorcycles 75 Human Health & Social Work Activities 66 Administrative & Support Service Activities 66 Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing 64 Transportation & Storage 61 Education 44 Financial & Insurance Activities 40 Real Estate Activities 36 Information & Communication 34 Water Supply; Sewerage, Waste Management & Remedial Activities 16 Public administration 11 Electricity, Gas, Steam & Air Conditioning Supply 4 Mining & Quarrying 3 Grand Total 1650

20 Postcode data is from May 2013 and is based on Ordnance Survey Codepoint data. The Output Area is the lowest geographical level at which census estimates are provided

70

9 B USI N ESS SU R VEY

9.1 Introduction

9.1.1 The results of the Tandridge business survey are presented at the aggregate district wide level and split by broad industry groupings.

9.1.2 To enable comparability where available with the Surrey Business Survey results, the 20 industry sectors have been grouped into the 9 broad categories used in the report. These are as follows:

Accommodation & Food Service Activities ! Accommodation/Food Service Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing, Mining & Quarrying, Electricity, Gas, Steam & Air Conditioning Supply, Water Supply; Sewage, Waste Management ! Agriculture/Mining/Utilities Arts, Entertainment & Recreation; Other Service Activities ! Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services Construction ! Construction Financial & Insurance Activities; Information & Communication; Real Financial/Information/Real Estate; Administrative & Support Service Activities ! Estate/Administration Manufacturing; Transportation & Storage ! Manufacturing/Transport/Storage Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities ! Professional/Scientific/Technical Public Administration & Defence; Public Health & Social Work Activities; Education ! Public/Social/Education/Health Wholesale & Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles & Motorcycles ! Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade

9.1.3 However, direct comparison with the results which we have been able to draw from the Surrey Business Survey report is limited as the report does not present much of the baseline data gathered in the form we require. Should the raw data from the Surrey wide survey become later available, we are able to add these additional comparisons.

9.2 Business structure

9.2.1 Over half of all businesses are limited companies (56%) and just over a quarter (27%) are sole traders.

71

9.2.2 Sole trader status suits many business formats, although in terms of potential personal liability, ability to raise finance and covenant to secure premises can hinder growth potential. Higher growth businesses tend to opt for some form of limited liability structure such as standard limited company (Ltd) or via a limited liability partnership (LLP). LLPs often used by professional service providers such as accountants, lawyers, solicitors and even veterinary practices accounted by 11% of all businesses in Tandridge.

9.2.3 The survey revealed that overall only 4% of businesses classed themselves as social enterprises. Government statistics indicate around 6% of UK businesses classed themselves as ‘social enterprises’ in 201221 .

Table 21: Business structure by sector Sole Limited Social Trader Partnership Company Enterprise Other Accommodation/Food Service 25% 13% 50% 0% 13% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 41% 24% 35% 0% 0% Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services 33% 15% 36% 7% 8% Construction 25% 0% 75% 0% 0% Financial/Information/Real Estate/Administration 27% 2% 71% 0% 0% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 27% 14% 57% 0% 2% Professional/Scientific/Technical 20% 11% 66% 0% 3% Public/Social/Education/Health 7% 7% 40% 13% 33% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 32% 14% 51% 2% 2%

9.2.4 Sector level results reveal that the highest proportion of limited companies is found within the Construction (75%) and Financial/Information/Real

21 Social Enterprise Market Trends, Cabinet Office 2012

72

Estate/Administration (71%) sectors, though both industry sectors also contain a significant proportion of sole traders.

9.2.5 The proportion of sole traders is higher within the industry grouping Agriculture/Mining/Utilities and this is driven by the larger number of self- employed businesses found in the Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing sector.

9.3 Number of staff

9.3.1 Most businesses employed fewer than five members of staff, particularly businesses in the Construction sector (78%) and businesses in the Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other Services industry grouping (72%).

Table 22: Number of employees by sector Less than 4 10 to 49 50 to 249 More than people 5 to 9 people people people 250 people Accommodation/Food Service 33% 38% 29% 0% 0% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 65% 18% 12% 6% 0% Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services 72% 14% 13% 1% 0% Construction 78% 20% 3% 0% 0% Financial/Information/Real Estate/Administration 66% 24% 10% 0% 0% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 61% 18% 20% 0% 0% Professional/Scientific/Technical 63% 20% 17% 0% 0% Public/Social/Education/Health 7% 20% 60% 13% 0% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 62% 22% 14% 0% 2%

9.3.2 ONS and BIS tend to lump employee numbers into 0-9, 10-49, 50-249 and above 250 bandings. The additional band of 0-4 demonstrates how dominant the “micro” and “small” businesses are within some sectors. From a business support and engagement perspective accessing businesses of this size where the owner /operator/manager & director is responsible for so many facets of the business can be especially

73

challenging.

9.3.3 Comparison with the most recent BIS statistics for the UK, the results for Tandridge varies as follows:

0-9 employees: Tandridge - 82% BIS UK 2012 95% 10-49 employees: Tandridge - 17% BIS UK 2012 4% 50-249 employees: Tandridge - 2% BIS UK 2012 1% 249+ employees: Tandridge – 0%, BIS UK 2012 0.2%

9.4 Age of business

9.4.1 There is a high volume of well established businesses in Tandridge. Over two-thirds (68%) of businesses have been operating for over 10 years.

9.4.2 The number of young start ups is relatively low; only 2% of businesses are under a year old. This concurs with new start-up data reviewed in section 2.4. Start-up businesses are an indication as how entrepreneurial an area is.

9.4.3 Relatively more younger businesses which have been trading between one to two years are found in the Construction (13%) sector and the Public/Social/Education/Health sector (13%).

74

Table 23: Age of business by sector Less than 1 1 to 2 3 to 4 5 to 10 Over 10 year years years years years Accommodation/Food Service 0% 8% 17% 25% 50% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 0% 0% 0% 0% 100% Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services 1% 3% 4% 21% 71% Construction 3% 13% 8% 25% 53% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Administration 0% 5% 7% 20% 68% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 2% 6% 4% 16% 71% Professional/Scientific/Technical 0% 6% 3% 17% 74% Public/Social/Education/Health 0% 13% 0% 13% 73% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 2% 5% 8% 16% 70%

9.5 VAT status

9.5.1 Around three quarter (73%) of all businesses are VAT registered. The highest proportion of VAT registered businesses are found in the Accommodation/Food Service sector (88%), the Agriculture/Mining/Utilities industry grouping (88%) and the Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade (84%) industry grouping.

9.5.2 Most of those who are not VAT registered have no plans to register

9.5.3 A number of factors could contribute to this; the desire to stay under the current £81,000 VAT turnover threshold; this can disadvantage larger pure service sector businesses competing with smaller sole-traders e.g. hairdresser, gardener, cleaner as they will provide equivalent services without the addition of 20% VAT. The perceived and actual additional administration of dealing with VAT in terms of reporting and payments to HMRC.

9.5.4 The 8% reporting that they have plans to register will more likely be those businesses on a growth trajectory trading close to the current threshold.

75

Table 24: Vat status by sector Whether vat registered or Whether planning of not registering Yes No Yes No Accommodation/Food Service 88% 13% 33% 67% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 88% 12% 50% 50% Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services 57% 43% 3% 97% Construction 68% 33% 15% 85% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Administration 71% 29% 8% 92% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 76% 24% 0% 100% Professional/Scientific/Technical 74% 26% 11% 89% Public/Social/Education/Health 47% 53% 0% 100% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 84% 16% 10% 90%

9.6 Transport used by staff

9.6.1 The main mode of transport used to travel to work is the car (78% of businesses reported that employees mainly travel by car).

9.6.2 Interestingly, the results reveal that walking to work is a common mode of transportation in a number of sectors. The highest proportion of staff working in the industrial grouping Agriculture/Mining/Utilities travel are found to walk to work (41%). As the largest sector in this grouping is agriculture, it suggests many agricultural workers live close by or on site.

9.6.3 A third (34%) of staff working in Financial/Info & Comm/Real Estate/Administration, just under a third (29%) of staff working in Accommodation and Food Service, and a quarter (24%) of staff working in Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other Services industry sector also travel to work on foot.

76

Table 25: Transport used by staff by sector Car Bus Bicycle Train On foot/walk Accommodation/Food Service 58% 8% 4% 0% 29% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 53% 6% 0% 0% 41% Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services 72% 3% 0% 1% 24% Construction 88% 0% 0% 3% 10% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Administration 63% 0% 0% 2% 34% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 88% 2% 2% 0% 8% Professional/Scientific/Technical 83% 0% 0% 3% 14% Public/Social/Education/Health 87% 7% 0% 0% 7% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 81% 0% 2% 5% 13%

9.6.4 A separate question on the proportion of staff who travel to work by train, found that train travel is generally very low. Based on the knowledge gleaned from the senior decision-makers of each business, an average of 12% of businesses have staff who use the train as one of the modes of transport to travel to work and back. Within this 12%, the proportions using the train as the main mode of transport is still low as illustrated in the percentage distribution presented in Fig. 5a. The results show that businesses where 50% and more staff use the train accounts for only 3% of all businesses.

9.6.5 A separate question on the main mode of transport used to travel to work reveals that the car is by far the most dominant (78%).

77

9.7 Advantages and disadvantages to trading in Tandridge

9.7.1 Businesses were presented with 16 aspects of Tandridge as a place to trade/operate from and were asked to state whether they saw these aspects as advantages or disadvantages.

9.7.2 Of all the aspects rated, most were seen as advantages rather than disadvantages, though on many of the aspects rated a significant proportion of businesses felt that the aspects were neither advantages or disadvantages or that they were not directly relevant for their particular business.

9.7.3 The aspect which is seen as the most advantageous is ‘Road links locally across/through District’ with 82% of businesses rating this aspect as an advantage. This was followed closely with ‘Road links to major markets, e.g. London’ (rated by 72% of businesses as an advantage).

9.7.4 Other aspects rated as advantageous by the at least two-thirds of businesses include ‘Broadband and mobile telecommunications availability’ (62%), ‘Parking availability (62%), ‘Proximity of customers’ (61%) and ‘Availability of suitable premises’ (60%).

78

9.7.5 Aspects which received relatively higher proportion of disadvantage responses from businesses (close to a third of business or just over a third of business) include ‘Energy costs’ with 36% of businesses seeing this as a disadvantage, ‘Public transport’ provision with 32% of businesses stating that this was a disadvantage of being located in the area. ‘Cost/availability of local housing’ and ‘Broadband and mobile telecommunications availability’ is stated as a disadvantage by 29% of businesses respectively.

9.7.6 Given the relatively high number of individual aspects rated, results split by industry sector is provided in Appendix 2 and only a few key headlines showing significant differences between industry sectors is presented here. This includes a significant difference on the cost of premises in Tandridge – this aspect is rated as an advantage to trading in Tandridge for 63% of Professional/Scientific/Technical businesses but is seen as disadvantageous for 42% of Accommodation/Food Service businesses.

9.7.7 Another significant difference lay with views on road links to major markets such as London. The vast majority of Accommodation/Food Service businesses (92%) see this as an advantage. Conversely, a quarter of businesses in the Agriculture/Mining/Utilities industrial grouping see this as a disadvantage, most likely due to the way this facilitates more competitive goods arriving in the local area by freight.

9.7.8 Accommodation/Food Service businesses and agencies operating in the public sector are more critical than other sectors on the provision of local amenities such as shops and leisure facilities. Just under a half (47%) of Public/Social/Education/Health establishments and businesses and 38% of Accommodation/Food Service businesses rated local amenities in Tandridge as disadvantages.

9.7.9 The fact that these two industry sectors are more critical than the others is not entirely surprising given that the range and quality of local facilities and services have a greater bearing on these sectors – for the public sector these services impact on issues such as social cohesion and mental and physical well being and for those working in the hospitality sector, for attracting customers to the area.

9.8 Market reach

9.8.1 Overall just over a third (35%) of business predominately sell or market their goods/services locally within Tandridge.

9.8.2 The level of selling or marketing at predominately national level is relatively small at 3% but a significant 16% sell/market across the UK and 15% sell/market across the south east region.

79

9.8.3 In 2014, the proportion of businesses trading internationally is 9%.

9.8.4 The industry sector most reliant on the local market is the Accommodation & Food Service Activities sector with 75% predominately selling their goods/services in Tandridge. This is matched by the public sector (73%) as is to be expected, though a number of these agencies such as County Council led services have a Surrey-wide focus (13%).

9.8.5 The sector more likely to be selling all across UK (including Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales) is Manufacturing; Transportation & Storage, with nearly a third (29%) selling predominately at UK level. See sector level results in Appendix 3.

9.8.6 Encouraging British businesses to export is a key Government priority from both a balance of payments and business growth perspective. To gauge interest in exporting, all businesses were asked if they have considered selling or marketing their products abroad. The survey found that overall just under two thirds (61%) of Tandridge businesses do not believe that their goods/services are suitable to be sold outside the UK.

80

9.8.7 Those industrial sectors most likely to be considering selling and/or marketing their goods or services abroad are Agriculture/Mining/Utilities (12%), Manufacturing/Transport/Storage (12%), and Financial/Info & Comm/Real Estate/Administration (10%).

Table 27: Whether considered selling/marketing abroad by sector

No - our No - our Yes - we goods/services goods/services Yes - we are are not could be sold already considering suitable to be outside the UK sell selling sold outside but we are not outside outside the the UK considering it the UK UK Accommodation/Food Service 92% 8% 0% 0% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 47% 6% 35% 12% Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services 58% 22% 17% 3% Construction 83% 8% 5% 5% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Administration 56% 10% 24% 10% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 51% 6% 31% 12% Professional/Scientific/Technical 60% 14% 23% 3% Public/Social/Education/Health 67% 20% 13% 0% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 63% 10% 22% 5%

9.9 Sales channels

9.9.1 Nearly three-quarter (70%) of all businesses sell their goods/services directly from their premises. The web is also used by nearly two third (61%) of all businesses and a quarter (25%) also sell directly from print advertising e.g. newspaper, magazine.

9.9.2 The traditional sales channel of catalogues and brochures is used by 13% of all industry sectors reflecting the current decline in their use across most

81

sectors. Selling through other advertising e.g. banner ads, radio is also relatively low at only 9%.

Note: Multiple responses permitted so results do not sum to 100%

9.9.3 Unsurprisingly, businesses operating in the Accommodation & Food Service Activities sector are more likely to sell their goods directly from their premise (92%) though nearly three-quarter (71%) also sell their goods online and half sell directly from print advertising (see Appendix 3 for results by sector).

9.9.4 In light of Surrey’s superfast broadband roll-out aspirations the use of digital sales channels was marked across all sectors.

9.9.5 The main ‘other routes’ to market mentioned by businesses are word of mouth selling and social media (business and personal Facebook and Twitter).

9.10 Use of digital communication

9.10.1 The top three forms of digital communication used by businesses are dedicated business phone line (84%), dedicated business email address (83%), and their own promotional website (65%). A third (33%) of all businesses have a business Facebook page and a quarter also have a Linked-In profile and a business Twitter account (see Fig. 10 overleaf).

9.10.2 Overall a small minority (3%) of businesses mentioned ‘other digital communication channels’. This is Instragram, Youtube, Flickr and online blogs.

82

Note: Multiple responses permitted so results do not sum to 100%

9.10.3 Results by industry sector reveal that Public/Social/Education/ have the highest use of business Facebook communication (47%) followed by Health Accommodation & food services (42%). Around a half of Financial/Info & Comm/Real Estate/Administration sector businesses (49%) made use of Linked-In for their digital communications.

9.10.4 It is interesting to note that the retail sector reported among the lowest (49%) for having a promotional website, although a further 27% stated their website was transactional (see Appendix 3 for results by sector).

9.10.5 Further drilling of the data indicate that the lower usage of own business website was higher among micro and SME retailers and mirrors wider studies undertaken by the ATCM22 which is currently rolling out a programme to get Britain’s retailers to go digital23 .

9.11 Broadband speed & provision

9.11.1 A separate question on broadband speed finds that 11% of businesses believe that their broadband speed/provision is so poor that it is adversely affecting their business. The perceived negative impact of poor broadband speed/provision is higher among farming businesses; overall just under a third (29%) of the industry sector grouping Agriculture/Mining/Utilities of which farming is a dominant sub-sector reported a negative impact of poor broadband speed/provision.

9.11.2 A further 14% of businesses reported that their broadband speed/provision is poor but that they could manage the difficulties this posed for them at

22 https://www.atcm.org/atcm-uploads/DOCS/dhs_skills_press_release.pdf 23 https://www.atcm.org/programmes/digital_high_street/digital_high_street_overview

83

present. This attitude is highest among Accommodation/Food Service and Manufacturing/Transport/Storage businesses with a fifth respectively sharing this view.

9.11.3 Just under a half of all businesses (46%) reported that their broadband speed and provision are adequate in meeting their needs, and a fifth (21%) reported that their broadband speed and provision are adequate for now but that they require improvements in the future. The industry sectors most likely to share this view are Financial/Info & Comm/Real Estate/Administration (32%), Manufacturing/Transport/Storage (24%), and Professional/Scientific/Technical (26%). With the exponential rise in use of and demand for faster and more robust broadband these numbers are likely to increase within a very short time.

Table 30: Adequacy of broadband speed and provision by sector Currently OK Poor and is Currently OK but I will want Poor but I can adversely My broadband speed/provision is: and will meet better in the manage at affecting my Don’t my needs future present business require it Accommodation/Food Service 33% 13% 21% 17% 17% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 29% 18% 12% 29% 12% Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services 50% 15% 10% 10% 15% Construction 68% 13% 13% 8% 0% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Administration 41% 32% 10% 17% 0% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 41% 24% 20% 8% 6% Professional/Scientific/Technical 43% 26% 17% 9% 6% Public/Social/Education/Health 87% 13% 0% 0% 0% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 43% 22% 14% 6% 14%

9.12 Business performance

9.12.1 Results on business performance are compared directly with those emanating from the Surrey Business Survey.

84

9.12.2 Feedback from Tandridge businesses reveals that for most performance over the past 12 months had remained similar to the previous 12 months or had improved. Overall 41% of businesses reported that budgets/turnover remained the same and 38% reported an increase in budget/turnover.

9.12.3 By broad industry sector, four sectors are significantly more likely to have increased their budget/turnover compared to Tandridge businesses as a whole (where 40% and over had increased):

• Accommodation/Food Service (42%) • Construction (50%) • Financial/Info & Comm/Real Estate/Administration (51%) • Manufacturing/Transport/Storage (53%)

9.12.4 It should be noted that whilst a relatively high proportion of businesses in the Accommodation/Food Service industry sector reported an increase, just under a third of businesses in this sector also reported a decrease in turnover for the same period.

Table 31: Growth in budget/turnover over last 12 months by sector

Increase Stay the same Decrease Tandridge Surrey Tandridge Surrey Tandridge Surrey Accommodation/Food Service 42% 21% 29% 36% 29% 27% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 29% 32% 47% 43% 24% 22% Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services 28% 19% 49% 39% 24% 30% Construction 50% 39% 30% 32% 20% 25% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Administration 51% 44% 41% 34% 7% 11% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 53% 28% 33% 40% 14% 23% Professional/Scientific/Technical 26% 30% 60% 37% 14% 29% Public/Social/Education/Health 33% 19% 60% 41% 7% 22% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 32% 32% 44% 32% 24% 21%

85

9.12.5 Interestingly, these four broad industry sectors have not expressed the same level of growth at Surrey level. The Surrey Business Survey finds that only a fifth of Accommodation/Food Service experienced an increase in turnover (compared to 42% in Tandridge), 39% of Construction businesses experienced an increase (compared to 50% in Tandridge), 44% of Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Administration experienced an increase (compared to 51% in Tandridge) and 28% of Manufacturing/Transport/Storage businesses experienced an increase (compared to 53% in Tandridge).

36%$of$micro$businesses$ 49%$of$micro$businesses$ (<9$staff)$see$growth$ (<9$staff)$are$optmistic$ compared$to$57% of$ compared$to$71% of$ larger$businesses$ larger$businesses$ (>50$staff) (>50$staff)

9.12.6 At county level, establishments in the Public administration/social security/ education and health sector, Arts/other, and Accommodation/food service sectors were significantly less likely to say their budget/turnover had increased in the last financial year (19%, 19% and 21% respectively).

9.12.7 In Tandridge the broad business sectors most likely to have experienced a decrease in budget/turnover in the last 12 months compared to the previous 12 months are:

• Accommodation/Food Service (29%) • Agriculture/Mining/Utilities (24%) • Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services (24%) • Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade (24%)

9.12.8 A review of business comments on poor performance reveals very clearly that for most the economic downturn is to blame given its impact on household disposable income, particularly for retail and food & drink servicing businesses. The weather and a perception of increased competition were also contributory factors to poor performance:

9.12.9 Expectations for business performance in the coming financial year (March 2014 to April 2015) is generally positive with 52% of businesses reporting that they expect their budget/turnover to increase.

9.12.10 Overall only 11% of businesses expect that their turnover with decrease and 37% expect the level of turnover to stay about the same.

86

9.12.11 Comparable results from the Surrey Business Survey show an equally high level of optimism at county level, with 54% expecting their turnover/budget to increase, only 8% expecting it to decline and 32% expecting it to remain the same.

9.12.12 Among Tandridge businesses optimism is highest with businesses in the Construction sector (65% report that they expect business turnover to increase in the coming financial year).

Table 32: Expectations for future performance by sector

I expect my I expect my I expect my turnover to turnover to turnover to stay increase decrease about the same Accommodation/Food Service 54% 8% 38% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 53% 18% 29% Arts, Ent & Recreation/Other services 43% 11% 46% Construction 65% 3% 33% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Administration 51% 10% 39% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 55% 10% 35% Professional/Scientific/Technical 54% 9% 37% Public/Social/Education/Health 53% 0% 47% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 52% 13% 35%

9.13 Reasons behind performance increase/decrease

9.13.1 The reasons behind business performance increase/decrease were explored with an open-narrative question. Sample typical thematic “responses are as follows:

Increase:

“Better management of company” “Upturn in economy”/”People starting to spend again” “Upturn in specific sectors such as building and construction” “Good products, excellent customer service” “More PR, advertising and marketing” “Working harder, more hours”

Decrease:

“Economic downturn”/”recession” “Impact of flooding” “Downsizing”/”Winding down to retirement” “Increased competition from supermarkets” “Roadworks specifically A25” “Changes in consumer buying habits”

87

“Loss of skilled member of staff”

9.13.2 Detailed narrative responses are included in Appendix 4.

9.14 Barriers limiting business growth

9.14.1 Across the county, the majority of businesses can cite barriers to growth; only 13% report that they have experienced no barriers and 8% are not sure about the impact of barriers on growth. According to the results of the Surrey Business Survey, most businesses (58%) cited barriers related to the financial /economic climate. Only 8% mentioned issues related to staff and 20%mentioned issues related to planning/organisation or logistics.

9.14.2 The Surrey wide findings broadly match the results of the Tandridge survey.

Economic and financial barriers

9.14.3 Overall just over a half of all Tandridge businesses reported that they had not experienced any economic or financial barriers which had limited the growth of their business or any which they expected would impact on their business negatively in the near future.

9.14.4 Among the remaining 48% of businesses which did cite economic barriers, the recessionary pressures on customer spending and a decline in demand for their products were the greatest barrier (combined total of 45% cited recessionary factors).

Note: Multiple responses permitted so results do not sum to 100%

9.14.5 Customers spending less as a direct result of the economic recession has been experienced more significantly by businesses in the Accommodation

88

& food services and Construction sectors with 38% of businesses in each of these two broad sectors reporting a reduction in customer spending as being a barrier to growth.

9.14.6 Beyond the impact of the economic downturn on customer spending, other economic barriers included increased competition mentioned by 19% of businesses in the Wholesale &retail trade/repair of motor vehicles sector, and margins being squeezed, mentioned by 16% of businesses in the Manufacturing; Transportation & Storage broad industry sector (see Appendix 3 for results by sector).

9.14.7 Respondents had the opportunity to make open narrative comments for this question. Responses included:

‘Dramatic loss of footfall, retail shops closing being replaced with evening A3 uses’

‘Energy costs are very high’,

‘Rent & rates costs’,

‘VAT threshold too low’,

‘Imports are hard to compete with’.

Physical and legal barriers

9.14.8 Overall, three-quarter of all businesses (73%) reported that they had not experienced physical and legal barriers which had hindered the growth of their businesses or barriers of this nature which they expected to hinder growth in the near future.

9.14.9 Among the 27% of businesses which did cite physical and legislative barriers, a wide range of barriers were mentioned, but none is any large number. This included 8% of businesses citing statutory costs such as business rates and 7% of businesses citing affordability of premises/accommodation e.g. rents (see Fig. 14 overleaf).

89

Note: Multiple responses permitted so results do not sum to 100%

9.14.10 The business sector least likely to have experienced any physical or legal barrier to growth is the Accommodation/Food Service sector (60% reported they had not experienced any physical or legal barrier to growth).

9.14.11 Businesses working in the Agriculture/Mining/Utilities broad industry sector are more likely than the majority of Tandridge businesses to have experienced or expect to experience barriers caused by planning restrictions on use (12%) and planning restrictions on expansion/development (12%) (see Appendix 3 for results by sector).

9.14.12 Respondents had the opportunity to make open narrative comments for this question. Responses included: ‘(planning) restrictions on expansion to adjacent units’ ‘Transport costs, restrictions on delivering in emission zones’ ‘Roadworks A25 and works to pavements’

9.14.13 The survey also prompted a number of direct email responses from businesses within the District expressing specific frustrations over the perceived difficulty of finding alternative commercial space within the District or the apparent policy and planning restrictions on expansion within existing premises. These type of issues were reflected a number of

90

times within the open narrative options.

9.14.14 It is common for businesses to have a relatively inflexible approach to finding alternative premises, seeking the ideal size, location and price. However this does appear to be a regular observation within the District and one that would merit further research into the amount, type and cost of available commercial space within the District.

9.14.15 Relatively more Financial/Info & Comm/Real Estate/Administration businesses compared to other Tandridge businesses are also found to have experienced barriers due to poor access to superfast broadband (15%).

Accessing business advice and support barriers

9.14.16 Overall, only 8% of business experienced barriers with regard to getting access to business advice and support.

Note: Multiple responses permitted so results do not sum to 100%

91

9.14.17 On most of the responses provided by businesses, there is no significant difference by industry sector.

Table 35: Barriers to accessing support/advice by sector Lack of Availability free/low Availability/ of Availability/ cost Availability/ cost of subsidised cost of Not business cost of paid specialist grants or export experienced advice advice advice loans advice any barriers Other Accommodation/Food Service 0% 4% 4% 0% 0% 92% 0% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 100% 0% Arts/Other 1% 0% 1% 4% 0% 93% 0% Construction 3% 0% 3% 3% 0% 93% 3% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Admin 2% 2% 5% 0% 0% 95% 0% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 0% 2% 2% 0% 2% 94% 2% Professional/Scientific/Technical 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 100% 0% Public/Social/Education/Health 7% 0% 0% 0% 0% 93% 0% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 2% 0% 2% 2% 0% 97% 0%

Staffing related barriers

9.14.18 Nearly a fifth of businesses (18%) reported that they had experienced barriers with regard to staffing and staff skills.

Note: Multiple responses permitted so results do not sum to 100%

9.14.19 The proportion was significantly higher among Public/Social/Education/Health businesses and establishments with 40% experiencing problems related to staffing/staff skills and the greatest difficulty is the inability to recruit suitably skilled staff (27%). A fifth of Accommodation/Food Service businesses also cited the inability to recruit suitably skilled staff as a barrier.

92

Table 36: Staffing barriers by sector Inability to Skills Inability to recruit Lack of Skills gaps with recruit suitably suitable Not Lack of gaps with current suitably skilled Cost of training experienc affordable current managem skilled managem undertakin provision ed any housing staff ent staff ent g training locally barriers Other Accommodation/Food Service 4% 8% 0% 21% 0% 4% 4% 83% 0% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 0% 0% 0% 6% 0% 0% 0% 94% 0% Arts/Other 0% 1% 0% 8% 1% 4% 6% 86% 6% Construction 0% 0% 0% 13% 0% 8% 5% 80% 0% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Admin. 0% 2% 0% 12% 0% 2% 2% 83% 5% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 0% 2% 0% 6% 0% 0% 4% 86% 4% Professional/Scientific/Technical 0% 0% 0% 11% 0% 0% 0% 91% 0% Public/Social/Education/Health 0% 0% 0% 27% 0% 0% 0% 60% 13% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 0% 0% 0% 6% 2% 2% 0% 92% 2%

9.15 Use of business support or advice

9.15.1 Overall only 11% of Tandridge businesses sought support or advice over the last year. Establishments working in the Public/Social/Education/Health sector are more likely to have sought support or advice (27%) compared to businesses operating in other industry sectors.

Table 37: Whether needed business support/advice by sector Yes No Accommodation/Food Service 8% 92% Agriculture/Mining/Utilities 18% 82% Arts/Other 14% 86% Construction 8% 93% Financial/Info & Comm/R. Estate/Administration 15% 85% Manufacturing/Transport/Storage 10% 90% Professional/Scientific/Technical 6% 94% Public/Social/Education/Health 27% 73% Wholesale/Retail/Motor trade 8% 92% Note small sample base of 44 businesses accounting for 11% of sample.

9.15.2 The most common area where advice/support has been sought is ‘Finance/accounting/cashflow/managing suppliers/outsourcing’ (37%). The sample is too low (44) to provide results on the nature of support/advice sought by industry sector.

93

Note: Multiple responses permitted so results do not sum to 100%. Also note small sample base (n=44)

9.15.3 With regard to where the business support and advice came from, the most common resource businesses turned to was ‘other professional body’ mentioned by 33% of businesses.

9.15.4 Also popular were the traditional formal advice sources of business advisor (28%), accountant (26%), bank (21%) and solicitor (16%). The sample is too low to provide results on where support/advice was sought by industry sector.

Note: Multiple responses permitted so results do not sum to 100%. Also note small sample base (n=44)

94

9.16 Preferred location if relocated

9.16.1 All businesses were asked if they had to move their business, where they would relocate to. The results reveal that around a third would still prefer to stay in Tandridge but in and around the Oxted area (see Appendix 3 for results by sector).

95

10 VISI TO R EC O N O M Y

10.1 Introduction

10.1.1 Like most of Surrey, Tandridge is not generally perceived as a tourist ‘destination’ although the volume and value of the wider ‘visitor economy’ which includes day-trips, leisure and commercial tourism (hotels, meetings, conferences) makes a substantial contribution to the local economy see 10.2.

10.1.2 Tandridge also benefits from a pleasant rural environment being included within both the Surrey Hills AONB and High Weald AONB also having a number of picturesque villages and hamlets. The District does have a number of popular attractions including; Lingfield Park hotel and racecourse; Nutfield Priory hotel and Spa; Godstone Farm Playfarm; British Wildlife Centre; Titsey Place house & gardens and The London Temple (Mormon) visitor centre. Spread across the District are a number of golf courses including the Tandridge, which is widely listed as being within the top-100 UK golf courses.

10.2 Volume and value of tourism

24 10.2.1 The 2012 study of the economic impact of tourism on Surrey provides district level results and reveals that an estimated 105,000 overnight trips were spent in Tandridge in 2012, of which around 75,000 were made by domestic visitors (71%) and 30,000 by overseas visitors (29%). Reflecting the picture across the county, the proportion of trips made by visitors from overseas is higher than the regional average. Regionally, around 80% of overnight visitors are UK nationals and 20% are foreign nationals.

! ! ! Fig.!19:!Volume!and!value!of!tourism!in!Tandridge!!

24 The Economic Impact of Tourism on Surrey in 2012, produced by TSE Research.

96

10.2.2 The average trip duration for a domestic overnight visitor was 2.9 nights and involved an average trip expenditure per person of £120.67. Trip duration and spend was higher among visitors from overseas. The average trip duration for a visitor from overseas in 2012 was 7.7 nights and average trip expenditure per person was £344.37.

10.2.3 Overall overnight visitors spent in total just under £19.4 million on their trip.

10.2.4 In terms of sheer volume the greatest number of trips to Surrey are day trips – making up 93% of the market. In Tandridge, day visitors are estimated to have numbered almost 1.6 million in 2012 (accounting for 94% of all trips) and spent approximately £40.6 million on their visit to Tandridge.

10.2.5 In total, visitors spent £60 million on their visit to Tandridge in 2012.

10.2.6 Once adjustments are made to recognise that some of this expenditure will take place outside Tandridge (e.g. it is estimated that around 40% of expenditure on travel such as the purchase of petrol, coach and train fares, will be made at source of origin or on-route), and the additional expenditure generated through the multiplier effect, the total value of visitor expenditure which directly and indirectly benefits local businesses is £81.3 million.

10.2.7 This tourism-related expenditure is estimated 1,467 jobs, including all part- time and seasonal jobs, across the district. The full-time equivalent of these total jobs is 649.

10.3 Key tourism markets

10.3.1 The 2012 report on tourism reveals that 53% of all overnight trips to Tandridge are for the purpose of holiday and short breaks. Around a third (35%) of trips taken are specifically for the purpose of visiting friends and relatives (VFR trips) living in the district. A further 12% are for business and other purposes25 .

25 Comparable results are not available for day trips. Other purposes include a wide range of reasons for visiting such as attending a job interview and also includes visits made by language students.

97

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Fig.!21:!Overnight!trips!by!purpose!

10.3.2 There are notable differences in trip purpose between domestic visitors and those travelling from abroad. The VFR market is strongest among visitors from overseas with just over two-thirds (67%) of these visitors travelling specifically to see friends and/or relatives compared with a quarter of domestic visitors (23%).

Table 39: Overnight trips by purpose by domestic and overseas visitors UK Proportion Overseas Proportion Holiday 51,000 68% 5,000 17% Business 4,000 5% 3,000 10% VFR 17,000 23% 20,000 67% Other 3,000 4% 2,000 7% Study 0 0% 0 0% Total 75,000 30,000

10.4 Share of tourism market

10.4.1 The 2012 study reveals that Tandridge accounts for 6% of the total volume of visitors and 4.4% of total visitor expenditure within the county.

10.4.2 The districts accounting for the largest share are Guildford (17% of total share), Elmbridge (12% of total share), Waverley (12% of total share),and Reigate & Bansted (11% of total share).

98

Table 40: Tandridge tourism compared to county Distribution across Tandridge Surrey county UK overnight trips 75,000 1,452,000 5.2% Overseas overnight trips 30,000 610,000 4.9%

UK overnight trip spend £9,050,000 £242,621,000 3.7% Overseas overnight trip spend £10,331,000 £272,494,000 3.8%

Tourism day visits 1,580,000 26,070,000 6.1% Tourism day visit spend £40,673,000 £852,564,000 4.8%

Total trips 1,580,000 26,070,000 6.0% Total Spend £60,054,000 £1,367,679,000 4.4%

Total business turnover £81,327,000 £2,001,706,000 4.1% Total FTE employment 649 14,765 4.4% Actual jobs supported 1,467 35,066 4.2%

10.5 Key attractions within Tandridge

10.5.1 Tandridge like most of Surrey does not have any ‘destination’ visitor attractions such as Thorpe Park or Chessington World of Adventure however it does have a number of popular local and some regional attractions.

10.5.2 Lingfield Racecourse & Marriott Hotel is probably the best-known visitor attraction in Tandridge. Lingfield racecourse being one of only four all- weather tracks available in the UK. The recent addition of the Marriott Hotel complex has resulted it being called the “UK’s first racing country club”. The complex also benefits from adjacency to Lingfield railway station.

10.5.3 Nutfield Priory hotel and spa is part of the Hand Picked Hotels group. The establishment holds an AA 4-star grading for accommodation and AA 2- rosette grading for its restaurant.

10.5.4 With over 100 golf clubs in Surrey, the sport is well represented within Tandridge. The Tandridge founded in 1924, designed by renowned designer Harry Colt features in many ‘top-100’ UK course league tables. Other courses within the District include: Farleigh Golf Club, Woldingham Golf Club, Surrey National Golf Club, Godstone Golf Club, Bletchingly Golf Club, Chartham Park Golf Club and Effingham Park.

10.5.5 Tandridge has a number of smaller traditional attractions including the British Wildlife Centre, Beaver Water World and Godstone Farm &

99

Playbarn all catering for families and group travel.

10.5.6 The District does not have any National Trust properties although boasts two National Trust sites; one at Harewoods nr Outwood and one at Limpsfield Common nr Oxted. Titsey Place is an independently owned manor house and gardens nr Oxted.

10.5.7 London England Temple, nr Newchapel was opened in 1958 and was the first in the UK for the Church of The Latter Day Saints. Its visitors centre adjacent to the main Church welcome visitors of all faiths to the centre and gardens.

10.5.8 Rural Tandridge offers walkers two long-distance footpaths with the North Downs Way/Pilgrims Way and the Greensand Way both traversing the District.

10.5.9 Other local attractions include: Barn Theatre Oxted, Godstone Vineyards & Mercers Park Country Park (and Aquasports Centre).

100