Building a local economy that supports diverse industries contributes to employment through offering opportunities for many different skills and grows the economy in a stable way that is less vulnerable to market variations in any one industry type.

Runnymede's economy, in common with the rest of Surrey, is dominated by the service section which employs some 83% of the workforce while manufacturing accounts for just 5%. The Borough is becoming a major location for knowledge based sectors including information technology, telecommunications and advanced business services.

Have a look at Your Runnymede to see what economic diversity the Borough has to offer.

Runnymede objectives and indicators

Runnymede's sustainability objective is to sustain economic growth and competitiveness through developing a dynamic, diverse and knowledge-based economy that excels in innovation with higher value, lower impact activities.

In 2004, there were 3,175 VAT businesses registered in Runnymede, with real estate accounting for nearly 40% of these. Wholesale and retail have been slowly decreasing over the last 10 years, with over 100 less VAT businesses between 1994 and 2004. Agriculture and fishing, finance, education and health make up the smallest proportion of businesses within Runnymede, although there has been a marginal increase in the number of VAT businesses in the last year.

Runnymede actions and related organisations

The Runnymede Business partnership links the Council to the local business community to tackle local business issues with an active and diverse working programme.

It also contains a wide variety of information related to business activities in the Borough.