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Firms have won deals worth more than £500,000 from a new online initiative spearheaded by Surrey County Council.

The council has revealed that local businesses have been awarded 26 contracts totalling £521,000 through the BuildSurrey website within six months of launching.

Surrey created the site to help companies land building and repair work from the council, its main contractors and others in the public sector as part of a pledge to ensure 60% of the authority's spending on goods and services is with local businesses.

Its successful launch helped the county council earn a government award last month for being among the top 10 authorities in the country to do business with.

The contracts news comes after around 100 businesses attended an event in Woking to encourage companies to register on BuildSurrey and hire apprentices.

Oxted-based Pembury Construction Services has just secured a contract through BuildSurrey worth around £45,000.

Director Phil Ithier said: "We attended a number of BuildSurrey events, which helped us to understand the process for registering and using the web portal for tendering purposes. We had a number questions, all of which were responded to promptly and we have just secured our first contract."

Surrey County Council Leader David Hodge said: "Local businesses are the bedrock of every community, creating jobs and stimulating growth. If they thrive, we all thrive and that is why we have set a goal of making sure 60% of our spending is with Surrey businesses.

"Our BuildSurrey website has been an innovative way of helping to achieve this by helping local firms win contracts worth more than £500,000 and I'm sure it will continue to prove its worth in the months and years ahead."

The site can be found at http://www.buildsurrey.net.