APPENDIX 5

“Reasons against a single Unitary Authority in Surrey”
Source – Surrey Leaders Steering Group

London is made up of 32 Unitary Authorities, whose population ranges from 146k to 392k residents, and nearly 60% - 19 of those Unitary Authorities – represent populations below 300k.  (see appendix A)

Looking outside big cities, there are 56 unitary authorities across England.  Only 4 serve populations above 500k, 3 above 400k (and 2 of those just barely above 400k), 8 serve populations from 301k to 383k and the other 73% (or 41 Unitary Authorities) serve populations from just 41k to 294k. (see appendix B)

Surrey is as diverse an area as any of the combined authorities and more diverse than many, so working to huge minimum numbers is a red herring.  There are very few unitary authorities serving this magnitude of population with a minimum of 500k, no less 1.2million.  That would make us the one of the most distant, most undemocratic Authorities in the Western world. Treating Surrey as one Unitary Authority should  be ruled out.  In fact, three makes more sense and still would deliver Unitary Authorities representing more population than most Unitary Authorities and well above the average population represented by Unitary Authorities.

In short, a Unitary Authority serving a population of 1.2million does not make sense for Surrey, is not replicated in similar circumstances elsewhere, and must be ruled out as an option to pursue.

Appendix A

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_London_boroughs

Bottom of Form

Stats from 2022

Map of the 32 London boroughs and the City of London

List of boroughs and local authorities

Borough	Population (2022 est)
Barking and Dagenham^[note 1]	219,992
Barnet	389,101
Bexley	247,835
Brent	341,221
Bromley	329,578
Camden	218,049
Croydon	392,224
Ealing	369,937
Enfield	327,224
Greenwich^[note 2]	291,080
Hackney	261,491
Hammersmith and Fulham^[note 4]	185,238
Haringey	261,811
Harrow	261,185
Havering	264,703
Hillingdon	310,681
Hounslow	290,488
Islington	220,373
Kensington and Chelsea	146,154
Kingston upon Thames	168,302
Lambeth	316,812
Lewisham	298,653
Merton	210,709
Newham	358,645
Redbridge	310,911
Richmond upon Thames	194,894
Southwark	311,913
Sutton	209,602
Tower Hamlets	325,789
Waltham Forest	275,887
Wandsworth	329,035
Westminster	211,365

City of London

The City of London is the 33rd principal division of Greater London but it is not a London borough.

Appendix B

List of Unitary Authorities in England (stats from 2022, anything too new to have stats not yet included below)

Rank	Authority	Population
1	Cornwall	575,413
2	Buckinghamshire	560,409
3	County Durham	528,127
4	Wiltshire	515,885
5	Bristol	479,024
6	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	401,898
7	Cheshire East	406,527
8	Dorset	383,274
9	Leicester	373,399
10	East Riding of Yorkshire	346,309
11	Cheshire West and Chester	361,694
12	Nottingham	328,513
13	Northumberland	324,362
14	Shropshire	327,178
15	Brighton & Hove	277,965
16	Central Bedfordshire	301,501
17	South Gloucestershire	294,765
18	Medway	282,702
19	Milton Keynes	292,180
20	Plymouth	266,862
21	Kingston upon Hull	268,852
22	Derby	263,490
23	Stoke-on-Trent	259,965
24	Southampton	252,689
25	Swindon	235,657
26	Portsmouth	208,420
27	Luton	226,973
28	North Somerset	219,145
29	Warrington	211,580
30	York	204,551
31	Peterborough	217,705
32	Stockton-on-Tees	199,966
33	Herefordshire	188,719
34	Bath and North East Somerset	195,618
35	Southend-on-Sea	180,915
36	Telford and Wrekin	188,871
37	North Lincolnshire	170,042
38	Thurrock	176,877
39	Bedford	187,466
40	Wokingham	180,967
41	Reading	174,820
42	North East Lincolnshire	157,754
43	West Berkshire	162,215
44	Windsor and Maidenhead	154,738
45	Blackburn with Darwen	155,762
46	Slough	159,182
47	Isle of Wight	140,794
48	Middlesbrough	148,285
49	Blackpool	141,574
50	Redcar and Cleveland	137,175
51	Torbay	139,479
52	Halton	128,964
53	Bracknell Forest	126,881
54	Darlington	109,469
55	Hartlepool	93,861
56	Rutland	41,151