South East Plan – Core regional policies
The South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) agreed and submitted to government its draft South East Plan on 31 March 2006. It consists of six documents:
- Executive Summary
- Core Document
- Monitoring Framework
- Implementation Plan
- Pre-submission Consultation Statement
- Sustainable Appraisal Non-technical Summary.
The Core Document contains both core regional policies which will apply across the whole of the region, and sub-regional strategies. You can view all the plan documents on the South East Plan pages of the SEERA website.
Vision for a healthy region
The South East Plan presents an overall vision for a healthy region that, through the plan and other measures, will show a sustained improvement in its quality of life over the period to 2026. It will be measured by the well-being of its citizens, the vitality of its economy, the wealth of its environment, and the prudent use of natural resources.
Overall strategy
The plan is based on an overall spatial strategy which establishes some key principles for guiding development across the region. This aims to:
- promote the sustainable development of communities in all parts of the South East
- ensure that development only takes place when necessary supporting infrastructure is available or will be provided in time
- concentrate development in existing towns and encourage an ‘urban renaissance’
- support the maintenance of thriving, mixed communities in rural areas
- increase the provision of affordable housing while reducing economic and social inequalities across the region
- support agreed proposals for major development in a number of key ‘growth areas’ – Thames Gateway, Ashford, Milton Keynes/Aylesbury Vale and South Hampshire
- include more distinct strategies for nine defined sub-regions (including the Sussex Coast and the Gatwick Area)
- encourage smart economic growth to increase general prosperity while minimising pressures on limited land and labour resources.
Housing requirements
Everyone needs a decent home at a price they can afford. One crucial aspect of the South East Plan is that it will determine just how many new homes should be provided in every part of the region to 2026.
SEERA has decided that the region should plan to build an annual average of 28,900 new homes over the next 20 years. Related targets for affordable housing require 25% of all new provision to be subsidised housing for rent, and a further 10% to be for shared ownership or other forms of low-cost provision.
The draft plan also establishes associated housing provision figures for counties, sub-regions and ‘rest of’ county areas. SEERA is looking to East Sussex (including Brighton & Hove) to provide an average of 1,900 new homes per year from 2006 onwards.
The need for infrastructure
One of the key purposes of planning is to make sure that additional services and infrastructure required to meet the extra demands arising from new development will be available as and when needed. The South East county councils have made sure that the South East Plan includes a clear policy which emphasises that development will only go ahead where it goes hand-in-hand with any necessary investment in supporting infrastructure and services.
Implementation Plan
The regional and sub-regional investment frameworks were expanded and updated before the Examination in Public and the County Council has helped with this process. The Assembly and its partners have also been looking at possible new funding mechanisms for meeting such infrastructure costs. The implementation plan highlights the need for investment particularly in transport and affordable housing. Full details on all these issues are given on SEERA’s website.
Sustainability appraisal
The main purpose of the planning system is to promote sustainable development. That is, development which meets present needs but also allows future generations to meet their own needs.
Promoting long-term improvements in the overall quality of life for both present residents and future generations means we must try to tackle economic, social and environmental issues in a more integrated way. We must also take account of the wider impacts of our actions.
SEERA employed a firm of private consultants, ERM, to assess how sustainable the South East Plan’s emerging proposals were. Their findings have been used to further develop and amend draft policies to make them more sustainable.
A Sustainability Appraisal incorporating the European Union’s requirement for the Strategic Environmental Assessment of policies and plans and has been carried out by ERM. A non-technical summary of the Sustainability Appraisal Report was submitted to government as part of the draft South East Plan.
