GOSE REPORT

GOSE Director Paul Martin alerted members to consultation on an updated Regional Housing Strategy, due to begin in January 2005. The strategy aims to prioritise affordable housing in the most expensive areas, including provision of social rented housing, as well as affordable homes to buy.

The Government's financial settlement for housing in the region is, provisionally, a 13% increase on last year (£380m in 2005-06 and £415m in 2006-07). Although the South East has the highest per capita allocation, the percentage increase was lower than in other regions. GOSE will be reviewing the allocation formula to understand the different percentage increases allocated to different regions.

On the recent financial settlement for local government, he said that abolition of ceilings on grant was good news for areas experiencing rapid growth, such as Milton Keynes. Also announced was a total of £600million in planning funding for local authorities and assemblies over the next five years.

The region’s transport settlement gave £194m for Local Transport Plans in the South East, a 4% reduction on last year. However the region also received the go ahead for three major transport schemes (out of only eight approved nation-wide) in Kent, Portsmouth and Hastings/Bexhill.

Government consultation has been issued on regional guideline budgets, where the Government wants regions to consider housing, transport and economic development budgets as a whole to achieve better linkages between these key areas of policy.

And finally he advised that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister would publish a five-year plan in January. The two-stage publication would address the delivery of sustainable communities through the themes of homes, people, places and prosperity.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT

Paul Bevan, Assembly Chief Executive, updated the Committee on the following issues:

The future of the Government’s regional agenda
Following November’s referendum on elected regional assemblies in the North East, both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have restated to Parliament their clear commitment to maintaining voluntary assemblies such as our own in all the English Regions. The White Paper ‘Your Region, Your Choice’ explicitly allowed for some regions continuing with the partnership model of regional governance that we have developed so strongly in the South East. Chapter 2 of the White Paper will now guide the agenda for all regions.

English Regions Network (ERN)
The 2005 ERN conference will be held on Monday, 28 February at the University of Warwick.

RPC CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Keith Mitchell, Chairman of the Regional Planning Committee (RPC) reported the key points from the last RPC meeting:

• The Committee agreed the changes to the South East Plan from the November Plenary
• Called a further meeting on 22 December to consider the work that was requested on the spatial options in the Plan
• Agreed that consultation will now be from 24 January 2005 to 15 April 2005.

FINANCE REPORT

Director of Resources Carol Hodson reported to the Committee that Assembly expenditure for the first six months of the financial year was £1,897,000, which is £11,000 within budget.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

The Assembly Plenary on 29 November 2004 agreed that local authority subscription rates for 2005-06 should be held at the current levels, plus an allowance for inflation of 2%.

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY DIALOGUE

The Assembly enjoys an active and generally positive relationship with the Environment Agency. As part of the Assembly’s engagement with regional agencies and scrutiny role, the Assembly held the third dialogue meeting with the Environment Agency in October 2004. The event was an opportunity for both parties to share information, take stock of their respective positions, identify possible problems and explore solutions and joint initiatives.

The meeting was chaired by Cllr Louise Bloom (Lib-Dem, Eastleigh), who reported back to the Executive Committee on 17 December.

A key issue debated with the Agency was the consumption of resources and production of waste by consumers. While this has relevance beyond the region, it was agreed that there were particular pressures in the South East that demanded action to change behaviour. The challenge was to raise public awareness of sustainable development and the environment. The Assembly and Agency are already undertaking joint research to advise on development pressures across the region, specific to the South East Plan.

There was also broad agreement about the need for a timely introduction of environmental infrastructure to build sustainable communities.

A number of specific actions were identified:

• To identify opportunities to use building regulations to encourage sustainable construction and the delivery of water and energy efficiency measures in new developments;
• To work together to identify opportunities to raise public awareness of the South East Plan as a tool for delivering sustainable development and changing consumptive behaviour;
• To continue to update information and statistics and monitor the treatment of hazardous waste;
• To lobby DEFRA and the Treasury for reform of the five year planning cycle of the Water Resources Plan to longer term planning;
• The Assembly to be notified of the release of the Agency’s National State of the Environment Report;
• The Assembly to lobby DEFRA on the new waste regulations to ensure implementation upholds the intention to reduce the risks to the environment associated with the treatment of hazardous waste.

SEEDA REPORT

SEEDA Chief Executive Pam Alexander announced the appointment of two new board members to SEEDA: Prof. Bill Wakenham, Vice Chancellor of Southampton University, and Imtiaz Farookhi, Chief Executive of the National House Building Council.

Pam Alexander also thanked Assembly members for their comments on SEEDA’s draft corporate Plan, which would be taken into account in further drafts. Her aim was to give SEEDA’s work more focus by adding value in key areas. As a result the previous nine priorities would be reduced to five. These are to achieve:

• A step change in support for business innovation, including productivity improvements;
• Improved support for enterprise (eg via new Business Links responsibilities);
• A quality, attractive environment for business;
• Momentum in delivering regeneration projects in growth areas and deprived areas;
• Improved internal strategic capacity.

She added that the corporate plan would also have cross-cutting themes covering skills development, environment and energy, while also recognising the importance of rural areas and a sub-regional approach. A final version of SEEDA’s corporate plan will be available for the Executive Committee meeting on 21 January 2005.

Urban Renaissance Select Committee
Pam Alexander welcomed the report of the Urban Renaissance Select Committee. SEEDA was very pleased to take part in the review of its urban renaissance work and had found the preparatory research and the scrutiny proceedings themselves to be of a high standard. Overall, the outcome is one that will be very helpful to SEEDA in carrying forward this important area of the Agency’s report. She confirmed that SEEDA:

• Will attempt to distinguish the role of SEEDA from other agencies;
• Queried criticism of the regional centre of excellence, arguing that there has been more progress than other regions;
• Is developing a new evaluation framework that gives opportunity to establish specific indicators for urban renaissance work;
• Will look at ways to disseminate lessons learned more effectively.

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Last updated: 21 August 2007