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What is your role at the Council?

I'm the Economic Development and Promoting the Borough Manager; a bit of a long title but my main role is to deliver the economic development strategy for Woking; a five year plan to improve the local economy and make Woking one of the South East's premier business locations.

When did the Strategy take effect and what are its key aims?

It became effective in 2012. There are four key strategies that we're aiming to deliver: improving the attractiveness and ambiance of the town centre; developments like Victoria Square, the new market, Commercial Way and bringing in new retailers and restaurants; it's a key part of the strategy to make sure Woking is an attractive place to live, work and shop.

The second is attracting more companies into the area; two recent examples being WWF and Mustang Engineering. Thirdly, we engage with existing businesses, companies like Yum, McLaren and SAB Miller, making sure we have a good relationship so that they stay and expand across the Borough.

The fourth one concerns creating opportunity and removing obstacles to growth. Things like improving the transport infrastructure; we've just applied for £7.5 million to widen Victoria Arch and to improve the facilities in and around Woking Train Station. We've also created an Incubation Centre at Export House to help start-up businesses.

How is Woking a better place for business now than it was before the Economic Strategy was implemented?

The location itself has a number of strengths that existed since before the strategy: a 25 minute connection to London, a skilled population base and a good choice of properties as well.

But what we've done to improve Woking as a place for business in the last few years has been to radically improve the town centre, to make it much more attractive for employers who are looking to locate or continue their presence in the area. And to support business, we have programmes such as Start Up Woking which provides advice to companies in their first three years, we have a web business portal, Woking Works, and we've worked with Connect2 Innovation to run a series of knowledge based business seminars.

How does the strategy affect struggling areas like Sheerwater?

Sheerwater and Maybury are key areas for WBC and our partners. Yes, they have been ranked as two of the most deprived areas in Surrey, but that actually masks the fact that there are a lot of opportunities there.

There's in the region of 1.2million square feet of industrial and office space; there's Asda and other businesses moving there on the back of the new access road, creating jobs. And on top of that there's the major housing regeneration scheme which aims to build upwards of 1000 new homes in the area. The strategy really will uplift the whole area.

What are you most excited about for Woking over the next few years?

Woking's reputation has not always been positive in the past, but with the improvements to the environment in the town centre and beyond, I think Woking will become a lot more successful. As people recognise that it is a good town to live and work in, it's going to become a very vibrant place. I think we're doing all the right things, on the whole.

Rich Lee 11/09/2014 Staff Writer

This article originally appeared in The Guide 2 Woking September 2014 edition, pages 44-45.
It can be viewed here