Supporting independent high street businesses across Surrey
Surrey has hundreds of high streets across the county, with thousands of small and medium businesses acting as a hub for their communities.
We provide fully-funded support to high street businesses via our Business Surrey service.
Several areas also have Business Improvement Districts, which are independent of local government.
High Street Growth and Innovation Programme
The Surrey High Street Growth and Innovation Programme was a county‑wide initiative funded by our Economic Growth Fund to support independent businesses across the whole of Surrey.
The programme offered free, practical and locally tailored support to businesses across Surrey high streets.
More than 450 businesses were supported by the programme in more than 20 locations during spring 2026.
A range of resources for high street businesses have also been created.
Downloadable these via the High Streets page of the Business Surrey website.
Who Can Take Part?
The resources are available to any business on a Surrey high street. This includes:
- Independent retail and service‑based businesses
- Start‑ups and early‑stage ventures
- Pop‑ups and market traders
- Charities, CICs, mutuals and cooperatives
Business Improvement Districts
A Business Improvement District (BID) is made up of communities of individual businesses. They recognise that having BID status delivers benefits and improvements to their local economies.
A BID is a designated zone (BID Area) in which businesses pay an extra charge in addition to business rates.
This allows them to benefit from a wide range of additional services over and above those funded through the standard commercial rates and council services.
There is no limit on what projects or services can be provided through a Business Improvement District.
The only requirement is that it should be something that is in addition to services provided by local authorities. Improvements may include extra security, cleansing, events and environmental measures.
BIDs each have individual aims, decided by their member businesses. However they all have an underlying aim. This is to provide residents, workers and visitors with clean, safe, vibrant and attractive places, where events, culture and arts are represented and visible.
Anyone can propose a BID. But approval is dependent on a ballot of businesses within the designated zone. For full details, visit the BID page on the government website.
Business Improvement Districts in Surrey
Surrey has a number of active BIDs which make a positive contribution to their towns.
The areas with active BIDs are:
- Camberley
- Caterham
- Cobham
- Cranleigh
- Dorking
- Epsom
- Farnham
- Godalming
- Guildford
- Leatherhead
- Oxted
- Staines on Thames
- Walton on Thames
- Weybridge
Members of Surrey BIDs are a mixture of retail, hospitality, professional services, education providers, public service providers and service industries. They range in size from start-up micro businesses to multinationals.
BIDs provide employment, goods, services and entertainment for their areas.
They have a keen focus on representing their members in supporting.
They also promote the sustained success and vitality of Surrey’s town centres and their local economies.