Our vision, commitments and priorities

To be recognised by our residents, businesses and partners as a great Council.

This means:

• delivering quality services and support
• providing value for money
• making the borough a great place to live, work in, do business and visit
• being proactive about tackling climate change and reducing our environmental impact; and
• being flexible and sustainable, responding to the needs and demands of our borough, residents and businesses.

Our commitments

To continue to be a great Council, it is not just about what we do, but how we do it.

We commit to:

• high quality core services and continued service improvement
• clear and effective communication
• putting residents and customers at the heart of what we do
• environmental responsibility
• partnership working
• responsible use of data
• financial efficiency
• helping residents and businesses make a positive difference in our communities.

Our priorities for 2020-2025

Our priorities explain how we intend to deliver our vision, and are divided into three themes: People, Place and Organisation.

People

While many residents enjoy a good quality of life, others face challenges. Housing is expensive, our population is ageing, and welfare reform and public sector cuts are making it more difficult for people to access the support they need. By providing targeted support - and working closely with partner organisations - we can help the most vulnerable residents, build stronger communities and help reduce the financial burden on public services in the longer term.

Our People objectives

Housing: Secure the delivery of homes that can be afforded by local people and which provide a wider choice of tenure, type and size of housing.

Communities and community safety: Work with partners to create strong, safe and welcoming communities.

Vulnerable residents: Provide targeted and proactive support for our most vulnerable residents.

Leisure and wellbeing: Provide leisure, cultural and wellbeing services that are accessible to, and meet the needs of, communities and visitors.

Place

We know there is much that our residents and local businesses love about the borough, from our great location between London and Gatwick, to our characterful local towns, our fabulous local parks and our beautiful countryside. Not only do we have a stewardship role to protect what is good about the borough, we also have an opportunity to make Reigate & Banstead even better through the work that we do.

Our Place objectives

Towns and villages: With our partners, invest in our town and village centres, so they continue to be places where people choose to live, work, do business and visit. Economic prosperity: Drive the continued economic prosperity of the borough, facilitate improved business infrastructure, and confirm the borough’s reputation as a great place to do business.

Shaping our places: Ensure new development is properly planned and sustainable, and benefits the borough’s communities and the wider area. Clean and green spaces: Provide high quality neighbourhood services to ensure that the borough continues to be clean and attractive and local people have access to the services and facilities they need.

Environmental sustainability: Reduce our own environmental impact, support local residents and businesses to do the same, and make sure our activities increase the borough’s resilience to the effects of climate change

Organisation

We now receive no revenue support grant from the Government. If we are going to continue to provide high quality services, we need to find new ways of funding them. This means being more commercial to generate income, and spending that income on the right facilities, equipment and staff to deliver those services. This presents challenges, but we think that our proposed approach is better than the alternative of cutting or limiting the services we provide.

Our Organisation objectives

Financial sustainability: Be a financially self-sustaining Council. Funding our services: Generate additional income and build our financial resilience, in order to sustain services, through responsible and sustainable commercial activities.

Operational assets: Ensure that our operational assets (things like our estate, equipment, IT and vehicles) are fit for purpose.

Skills and great people: Ensure the Council (councillors and officers) has the right skills to deliver this plan.