About Sunderland City Council

Sunderland is a fantastic, forward-looking city undergoing significant transformation and economic regeneration, creating the very best conditions for our 280,000 residents who live here and those who come to the city to work. 

Sunderland is one of the few cities in the UK to be situated on the coast. It also benefits from easy access to the countryside, is a short drive from two international airports, has direct rail access to London, and is less than a twenty minute drive from Durham and Newcastle. 

The city also continues to be a source of world-changing social and industrial history and is now home to the UKs largest motor manufacturer, Nissan, who export from Sunderland to over 45 world markets. 

We have a growing cultural scene, with Sunderland Empire theatre attracting high-profile West End productions, the Fire Station - Sunderland's premier live music and performance venue, the National Glass Centre, Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens and Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art all close to the city centre.

Our City Plan

Take a look at our City Plan which outlines how we will work together with our partners and communities achieve our ambitions for Sunderland.

Investment and development opportunities 

Sunderland provides countless opportunities across manufacturing, business, retail and leisure industries making it ripe for new investment and development 

Smart City

By 2030 we aim to equip Sunderland with a world-class infrastructure, offering our people and businesses with the means to inspire and succeed.  Find out more about our plans for a Smart City.

Low Carbon ambition

We have a target for our operations to be carbon neutral by 2030 and are involving a range of people across the City to help us achieve this. Find out more about our Low Carbon.

Our values and ways of working 

As a council, what we do is as important as how we do it, with our values driving how we deliver excellence services to our customers and residents.

We expect all our employees to uphold our values:  

We Innovate: 

• We are always learning and growing, trying something new
• Listening to other's ideas, thoughts and opinions
• Putting the customer journey at the heart of what we do
• We take ideas on board and learn from our mistakes

We Enable:

• We work in an open, honest and trusting way
• We are ambitious and successful, working collaboratively as one xouncil
• We work best as a team supporting one another to be the best we can be
• We're proud to work for our city, our residents and communities and most of all each other

We Respect:

• We treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves with kindness, care and loyalty
• We are responsible, accountable, inclusive and proud of diversity
• We are accountable for our actions
• We're fun, we're fair, loyal and kind