Guildford Borough Council

About us

Guildford is a regional centre for leisure, business, education, shopping and culture set in beautiful countryside which includes the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town centre is a focus for major commercial and administrative functions and is a principal shopping destination with a vibrant night time economy.

The town’s geographical location provides excellent transport links in all directions – situated at the edge of the A3, just a five minute drive to Junction 10 of the M25 and under a half hour train journey to Waterloo. The Council’s main offices are well served by bus routes and are a short walk from the train station and the main shopping area. Park and Ride facilities are available in several locations around the town.

All of this contributes to a quality of life that attracts many people to live, work in and visit Guildford.

The working experience

With some 900 employees, Guildford Borough Council is a hugely diverse organisation delivering a wide range of services and employing people with an even broader range of skills. We firmly believe this helps us to generate the ideas and ingenuity needed to address the often complex issues that our communities face.

We are committed to improving our people performance and management practices using the Investors in People framework as a guide. Having met the core standard we are now working towards achieving Gold standard by 2016. We have also gained the Customer Service Excellence standard and all of our employees are expected to deliver a service that exceeds customer expectations.

We provide excellent training opportunities and have well established flexible working arrangements along with the many other benefits available to our employees.

Our vision

For Guildford to be a town and borough:

with strong infrastructure
for world-class businesses with capacity to expand and deliver growth
with an evolving and vibrant economy
which creates a progressive and sustainable environment
for people today and future generations living in an ever improving society.

Five fundamental themes that support our vision

Infrastructure
Working effectively with partners to drive development and business growth that will expand our economy.
Economy
To grow a sustainable economy that will support all aspects of life in our borough.
Development
To ensure that there is appropriate infrastructure, commercial space and a range of homes, built sensitively, without damaging our heritage or countryside.
Sustainability
To ensure the services we provide and the borough develops and grows, in the most sustainable way.
Society
To evolve a self-reliant and sustaining community, while supporting our most vulnerable residents.

Internal values for our people

Customer care
We put the customer at the heart of what we do by engaging in clear, honest, and meaningful two-way communications and delivering professional services shaped around their needs.
Quality focus
With customer insight, we provide high-quality services and find ways to improve. We seek to get things right first time, drive out waste and exceed expectations whenever possible.
Organisational learning
We strive to create a work environment where everyone is valued, trusted, supported and which facilitates growth and learning at the individual, team and organisational levels.
Challenge ourselves
We strive to improve what we do by seeking out new ways of working, encouraging innovation and enabling change.
One Council
We work together collaboratively, recognising that we are one organisation, working to achieve a common mission.