David Hodge has today (Friday 23 September) been elected as the new leader of the Conservative group at Surrey County Council, following Andrew Povey's resignation as group leader.

Mr Hodge was overwhelmingly endorsed during a meeting of Conservative councillors at County Hall in Kingston.

He replaces Dr Andrew Povey as leader of the Conservative group. Dr Povey will continue to lead the county council until a meeting of the Full Council on Tuesday 11 October elects a new county council leader.

Mr Hodge will be the Conservative group's nomination as county council leader and given the party's majority* is expected take over at the authority during the 11 October meeting.

Mr Hodge said: "It is an honour to be elected as leader of the Conservative group and I look forward to continuing to serve the people of Surrey as county council leader subject to the decision of the Full Council.

"Between now and then I will be developing my plans for the future of Surrey and I will announce my new Deputy Leader and Cabinet at the meeting should the meeting confirm me as leader.

"I would like to pay tribute to the work Andrew has done as leader. Through his hard work and that of his Cabinet colleagues the council has gone from strength to strength and I look forward to continuing our work to further improve the services we provide to residents."

Dr Povey said: "I would like to congratulate David on his election as group leader. As Deputy Leader of the County Council he spearheaded many initiatives that have helped transform the county council.

"I am proud of what we have achieved and I will be working closely with David to ensure there is a smooth handover to him subject to the decision of Full Council.

"Over the past two years we have achieved so much and I am delighted that we can now say that our children's services and adult social care department are among the most improved in the country. We have also been able to find annual savings of more than £4m in our highways services while still improving the speed and quality of road improvements and repairs.

"David should also be proud of the work he has done to find more than £90m of savings through our Public Value Review programme whilst maintaining the highest possible standard of service to residents."