Surrey County Council: local authority assessment

How we assess local authorities

Assessment published: 20 November 2024

About Surrey County Council

Demographics

Surrey is home to nearly 1.2 million people. The county’s population grew by over 6% in the decade to 2023. Surrey is more urban than England as a whole, but some areas of the county have large numbers of people living rurally. There are some affluent areas but also areas of inequalities and pockets of deprivation.

Surrey has a slightly older population than average. Just under 1 in 5 people are aged over 65, and this group is expected to increase to over 25% of the population by 2041, largely driven by Surrey’s higher than average life expectancy.

The majority of Surrey’s population are White British, 85.5%, with 3.36% of Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups, 7.72% Asian/Asian British, 1.73% Black, Black British, Caribbean or African, and 1.68% other. 

The council footprint has an index of multiple deprivation score of 1. A local authority with a decile of 1 means it is in the least deprived group (lowest 10%), while a local authority with a decile of 10 means it is in the most deprived group (highest 10%). The 2021 census data shows 42.9% of Surrey households experience some deprivation, with 2.2% facing significant deprivation.

Two integrated care boards operate within the Surrey County Council’s footprint, Surrey Heartlands and Frimley. There are 11 district and borough councils, and 7 place-based partnerships. Surrey County Council is a Conservative-led council.

Financial facts

• The local authority estimated that in 2022/23, its total budget would be £1,585,623,000. Its actual spend for that year was £1,743,634,000, which was £158,011,000 more than estimated.
• The local authority estimated that it would spend £433,068,000 of its total budget on adult social care in 2022/23 Its actual spend was £487,092,000, which is £54,024,000 more than estimated.
• In 2022/2023, 28% of the budget was spent on adult social care.
• The local authority has raised the full adult social care precept for 2023/24, with a value of 2%. Please note that the amount raised through ASC precept varies from local authority to local authority.​
• Approximately 14545 people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately 3300 people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2022/23. ​Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost.

This data is reproduced at the request of the Department of Health and Social Care. It has not been factored into our assessment and is presented for information purposes only.