Surrey Resilience Assembly

Surrey County Council, Surrey Prepared and Surrey Fire & Rescue (SFRS) have teamed up to create place‑based toolkits that can help you map current and future risks to your area, put emergency response plans in place, and learn how to play a role in mitigating future impacts.

The toolkits aim to highlight and simplify work that can be carried out by a collaboration of key stakeholders in any community, who can work together to protect local residents, reduce threats to personal security and damage to homes and buildings, and improve nature habitats and the local environment.

Surrey Prepared, a network of Surrey’s local authorities, first responders and health providers, as well as utility companies, the Environmental Agency, transport providers and more, has identified nine main risks to Surrey. The toolkit focuses on four of these, which present the highest risk due to their likelihood and the potential threat to life and property:

• Flooding: Over 30,000 homes in Surrey are at risk of flooding from rivers, surface water or groundwater. This is expected to rise to around 50,000 in the next 20 years.
• Adverse weather: This includes increasing heat risk, as seen in May’s record temperatures, as well as storms and extreme cold. These incidents can be particularly dangerous to young and elderly people.
• Wildfire: SFRS has mapped around 60 square miles at risk of wildfire in Surrey. A wildfire in January 2023 was the first time SFRS had to deal with such an incident in any January, highlighting the growing risk.
• Utilities outages: Power and water supply outages are not uncommon, particularly in rural parts of the county. When they occur because of, or in combination with, adverse weather, they can be dangerous and require an emergency response. Residents in Kent and Sussex were left without water during the May heatwave.

In addition, despite being the most densely wooded county, Surrey has an above‑average rate of nature loss. This habitat loss and fragmentation compound several of these risks, reducing the ability of landscapes to provide natural defence benefits such as holding back water during heavy rainfall, offering shading and cooling, or providing good‑quality green spaces that support health and wellbeing.

Because these risks are linked and can exacerbate one another, it’s important not to consider each risk in isolation. A community‑wide plan is needed, both for responding to emergencies and for reducing their likelihood and frequency in the long term.

Research across the county makes clear the scale of the challenge, but it also shows that communities are eager to tackle these issues, particularly given the co‑benefits associated with improving the local area and nature.

While an Emergency Response Plan is usually the responsibility of a tier 3 local authority, such as a town or parish council, not all areas have one. There is also plenty that community groups, schools, care homes, faith groups and others can do to contribute, particularly to long‑term prevention.

We therefore invite you, regardless of whether your area has a town or parish council, to join this session and begin thinking about a Community Resilience Plan for your area.

The workshop will provide insight into how communities can work together to create a Resilience Plan to tackle these risks. During this introductory workshop, participants will:

• Get an introduction to mapping local risks and impacts
• Learn how to complete an Emergency Response Plan to minimise damage and disruption from emergencies
• Learn about mapping local nature assets and how they can help prevent or reduce emergencies in the long term
• Discover how to understand local emissions sources and how your area can contribute to reducing them as part of a wider strategy to counter climate impact
• Discuss potential projects that could be funded by SCC’s Resilience Programme grants

Who is this for

The workshop is open to community groups, parish councils, school representatives, landowners or managers, and faith group leaders. You will be asked to complete a few short questions so that we can distribute attendees across these sectors. Please note that, due to this, not everyone who requests a spot may receive a place.