Government invited all the English regions to submit advice on investment priorities by the end of February 2009. This advice covers indicative regional funding allocations for transport, housing and regeneration and economic development for the period up to 2011. Regions are also asked to integrate skills priorities into the broader advice. The aim was to provide the region with the information needed to better align their strategies and provide an enhanced input into Government policy development and future public spending decisions.

Key points of our advice include:

• Continued investment in the South East is essential to the national economy; we contributed £17.7bn to Government in 2006/07 - 50% of total national UK net contribution
• Our economy's inherent strength means we will lead the UK economy out of recession
• We are committed to delivering sustainable economic development that reduces our ecological footprint
• We are investing in creating places; using our spatial priorities to target investment
• We are investing in delivering more affordable homes; additional investment will address the 40% shortfall in need
• We are bringing transport schemes forward for delivery and want to transfer money to local authorities to speed up delivery
• We are investing in creating capacity and capability to realise the potential of global markets for environmental technologies
• Our gateway function means that Government investment in our transport network is critical to the whole of the UK
• Our Regional Infrastructure Fund will provide public sector leadership in delivering infrastructure.

Regional Funding Advice (February 2009) - 8 MB

Previous advice

The region also submitted advice in January 2006. First feedback on the South East region's advice was received in July 2006, when then Transport Minister Douglas Alexander accepted the South East region's transport advice in full. He praised South East England for the high level of consensus it reached in tackling the difficult issue of prioritising transport schemes. A Regional Assembly press release welcomed his endorsement of the region's priorities while pointing out that making the region fund a nationally important scheme such as the A3 tunnel at Hindhead would delay other regional schemes. An overview of the region's transport projects (2006-2016) and a factsheet of each prioritised project is available in a Fact Book.

The document below is the advice from South East England. It has been prepared jointly by the South East England Regional Assembly, the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and the Government Office South East (GOSE), working with a wide range of partners and stakeholder groups.

Investing in our future prosperity and quality of life - the regional funding allocation for South East England - 309 KB

Letter to Department for Transport - 44 KB

Letter to Department for Trade and Industry - 44 KB

Letter to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - 44 KB

Letter to HM Treasury - 44 KB

Transport projects worth £410 million delivering key infrastructure in the South East received the green light from the Department for Transport 6 July 2006. More details are in the press release.

The RFA submission in January 2006 did not include recommendations to Ministers on the transport priorities post 2011. This was due to the stage of drafting of the South East Plan, and our wish to 'prioritise the future'. The Minister agreed that we could submit priorities for 2011-2016 at a later date. The below letter contains this element of the submission.

Letter to Secretary of State (December 2006) - 54 KB

The South East region's transport improvement priorities worth £530 million were given the go-ahead by Government, which accepted in full our advice, in May 2007. Details are available in a press release.

Discussion Papers

The discussion papers below, commissioned from the South East England Regional Housing and Transport Boards and SEEDA, relate to transport, housing and economic development. They set the context for more detailed work on prioritisation.

Feedback (including comments from the full Regional Assembly meeting on 16 November) was used to help shape the first draft of the prioritisation report, discussed in a workshop for stakeholders and members of the Regional Assembly Executive Committee on 16 December 2005.

Economic Development Discussion Paper - 159 KB

Housing Discussion Paper - 136 KB

Transport Discussion Paper - 113 KB

Note of Workshop - 40 KB

Stakeholder Workshop

A workshop on regional funding allocations was held in London on 16 December 2005 between 2pm and 4pm. Members of the Regional Assembly Executive Committee were joined by a wider group of stakeholders to discuss a draft submission prepared by the Assembly, SEEDA and the Government Office.

RFA Paper for Stakeholder Workshop - 723 KB

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