SOUTH EAST PLAN

Public participation
As part of the preparation of the South East Plan, the Government's Planning Policy Statement 11 (PPS11) requires a 'Statement of Public Participation', explaining how the Assembly is involving the public in the preparation of the Plan.

The Executive Committee endorsed the Statement setting out how the Assembly will work with local authorities and stakeholders to involve the communities of the region in the Plan.

The Assembly embarked on the South East Plan before PPS11 was finalised. Although its requirements have been largely met, members are aware that the timescale for sub-regional work specifically has not allowed the level of public involvement hoped for. However, at the regional level consultation to date has included two waves of MORI opinion research, an intense programme of Spring Debates and the Urban and Rural conferences. Indeed, PPS11 uses the Assembly’s work with MORI as an example of best practice.

GOSE has expressed satisfaction with the approach to consultation to date.

Next steps
The next step is for the Assembly Plenary Meeting on 29 November 2004 to agree the initial draft of the Plan, including the options to be put in the public consultation.

Consultation dates
The Assembly will be consulting from January to April 2005 on the regional and sub-regional policies, including the proposed housing numbers for sub-regions and residual county areas. Consultation on district-level housing figures will follow later in the year.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Because of the timing of Government funding decisions, the Assembly's budget is now finalised at the Assembly's March meeting each year. However, in order to give adequate notice to local authorities, the November meeting of the Assembly sets the indicative level of membership subscriptions for the forthcoming year.

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

PURDAH

The committee expressed its dissatisfaction at the 'purdah' concerning what members can say about Regional Assemblies in the lead up to the referendum in the North East. The committee agreed that a letter should be sent to the Deputy Prime Minister.

GOSE REPORT

GOSE Regional Director Paul Martin reported great interest in piloting Local Area Agreements that streamline government funding to local areas. As a result, the region is to have two pilot schemes, Brighton & Hove and Kent, rather than the one originally intended.

DEFRA has announced that it is introducing 'Rural Pathfinders' which will devolve power to local authorities to co-ordinate rural delivery. Hampshire County Council is set to pilot this new approach. Details will be reported when available.

The second Regional Housing Strategy is at an advanced stage of development, and the consultation draft will be released in November 2004. Regional allocations for housing investment are due to be announced in December 2004.

Finally, Paul Martin referred to the likely introduction of Indicative Regional Budgets. These will combine the budgets for economic development, housing and transport to allow for a more holistic approach to regional spending. It is expected that a limited amount of transfer between budgets will be permitted to meet priority needs. The Treasury is to issue consultation on this in November 2004.

REGIONAL TRANSPORT BOARD (RTB)

A discussion on the South East's pilot RTB concluded that it was worthwhile, but did not go as far as it had been hoped due to the timescale, complexity and availability of data.

It is a potentially valuable voice with encouraging engagement of partners, but there are also severe challenges particularly around the need for robust regional data and impact analysis.

The South East board took a more democratic approach than the other pilot exercise in Yorkshire and Humberside. The Executive expressed the hope that the Government would recognise that the deficiencies of the experiment were caused by issues of data and timing and were not due to the more inclusive model adopted in the South East.

SELECT COMMITTEE REPORT ON URBAN RENAISSANCE

The Executive endorsed the select committee report, which applauded SEEDA's work on urban renaissance.

There was compelling evidence that SEEDA offers:

• strong strategic leadership in the region,
• the ability to co-ordinate across boundaries,
• best practice through its own regeneration schemes, and
• co-operation with partners to achieve the best results.

It was suggested that the complex environment for urban renaissance requires a clearer explanation of the respective roles of SEEDA, the Assembly, English Partnerships and others in implementing the national and regional policy agenda.

The report recommended that SEEDA and the Assembly should open a supportive and co-operative dialogue with local authorities to address how they can both meet the demands for urban design. SEEDA was advised to develop and distribute good practice more effectively.

There was also some confusion over how SEEDA prioritises particular projects and it was felt there was a need to develop and monitor measurable outputs.

MERGER OF REGIONAL PLANNING AND HOUSING BODIES

The Executive approved a response to Government consultation on the merger of regional planning and housing bodies. It welcomed the proposal that Regional Assemblies are given responsibility for producing Regional Housing Strategies and making recommendations to Ministers on the broad pattern of housing investment in their region.

The Assembly is willing to establish appropriate arrangements for taking these proposals forward, in consultation with current Regional Housing Board members.

However, there are concerns about the resource implications and timescales. The Assembly does not have the capacity to take on this additional role, and some additional resources will be necessary.

Plans for a national advice unit should be closely focused and not stray into wider aspects of planning and housing that are more appropriately dealt with by Assemblies.

Although independent, the unit will need a dialogue with Assembly officers. It is suggested that this is carried out through a Sounding Board, with one officer from each Regional Assembly.

STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Howard Davidson, South East Regional Director of the Environment Agency said that the environment of the South East is "good but fragile".

Overall air quality continues to improve and regulated emissions are low but air pollution increased in 2003.

South East water consumption per head is the highest in the UK and rainfall per head is the lowest. We get 70% of supplies from groundwater. The Environment Agency needs to work with the Assembly to manage water demand and develop new storage facilities to prevent future water shortages.

New homes need to be more water and energy efficient, and careful design should be adopted where development on flood plains cannot be avoided.

There has been a great improvement in rivers since 1990. Bathing water quality is at its best since records began, but vulnerability is shown by the drop in quality caused by drought. New standards are being introduced through Water Framework Directive.

The Environment Agency praised the Assembly's waste management strategy and urged swift action to increase household recycling and composting (currently 19%) as the region is running out of landfill and waste continues to grow.

SEEDA REPORT

The committee received an early draft of SEEDA's corporate plan for review and will feedback comments, before seeing a fuller version at a later date.

Paul Hudson, Director of Development and infrastructure, reported that SEEDA has reviewed its committee structure and is creating a new forum, 'Business South East', in order to strengthen its engagement with business.

The SEEDA infrastructure committee is being wound up in the light of the number of other forums now in place including the new Regional Transport Board.

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Last updated: 21 August 2007