Planning jobs in Surrey

About the area

Planning in Surrey

Surrey has eleven borough and district councils: Elmbridge, Epsom & Ewell, Guildford, Mole Valley, Reigate & Banstead, Runnymede, Spelthorne, Surrey Heath, Tandridge, Waverley and Woking. Surrey County Council deals with minerals and waste planning and highways. Guildford, Woking, Camberley, Redhill, Staines-upon-Thames, Epsom and Farnham are among the larger towns, most of them commuter centres for London.

Metropolitan Green Belt covers most of the county, so finding land for housing is the central question in almost every local plan, and Green Belt review, previously developed land and town centre intensification come up again and again. The Surrey Hills National Landscape stretches across the middle of the county, and the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area in the north-west means new homes need mitigation. Heathrow sits just over the border and Gatwick just to the south, with the Thames and its flood plain along the northern edge. Applications tend to be high value and closely scrutinised, so the county offers plenty of work for development management officers, policy planners and consultancies.