Sutton borough profile Overview of borough • Resident population: 181,000 • Working age population: 112,000 • Key town centres: Sutton, Worcester Park, Cheam, North Cheam, Carshalton, Wallington and Rosehill. Skills & Labour Force Qualifications • 30.6% of the workforce is educated to degree level (NVQ4+). International Schools/Universities • Ming Tak Chinese School, Belmont. They offer a full range of language classes in both Cantonese and Mandarin from nursery through to adult. Classes are held on Saturdays during term-time. web: www.mingtak.org Colleges/Universities • Carshalton College of Further Education web: www.carshalton.ac.uk/index.shtm • Sutton College of Learning for Adults (SCOLA) web: www.scola.ac.uk Business Base • 62,000 people are employed in Sutton. • Strong focus on the retail sector, but also has a number of key office locations and 8 key industrial areas. • Beddington Zero Energy Development project (BedZED) in Sutton, the UK's largest home-ecology development. BedZED is a joint project of BioRegional and The Peabody Trust, which includes up to 100 homes and work space for up to 20 businesses. • A range of specialist hospitals including The Royal Marsden and the world class Institute of Cancer Research. • Key companies include: Reed Business Information, Halliburton Brown & Root, UCB Home Loans, Crown Agents, Homebase, Securicor, First Assist Group, M J Gleeson Group-builders, Phoenix Photonics – fibre optics manufacturer, RTT Group – electrical contractors, Voith Engineering. • Unemployment rate: 1.3% (Jan 2004) Transport • 9 railway stations connecting to Epsom, West Croydon, Blackfriars, Kings Cross Thameslink, Victoria, London Bridge, Luton and Bedford. • Trams linking borough of Sutton to Wimbledon, Croydon and Beckenham. • Gatwick Airport is a 30 minute drive and Heathrow Airport is a 40 minute drive. • A217, providing direct link to M25. A232 connecting Sutton to the boroughs of Epsom and Bromley. A24 connecting Sutton to Epsom, Morden and Central London. Quality of life Top 5 attractions: • Nonsuch Mansion • Whitehall – Tudor house • The Oaks Park • Honeywood House Heritage Centre • Shopping – St Nicholas Shopping Centre and Times Square Shopping Centre Business Support • Sutton Business Federation, 1a Stanley Road, Carshalton Surrey SM5 4LE 020 8773 8555 web: http://suttonbusinessfederation.org.uk • Sutton Council, Civic Offices, St. Nicholas Way, Sutton SM1 1EA 020 8770 5000 www.suttonbusiness.biz Key Business Sectors 23% Business Services 22% Wholesale/Retail trade Health and Education 7% Construction 9% 21% Manufacturing Other 18% Source: The Annual Business Inquiry (2001) [email protected] ©2004 Autumn 2004.