Mismatch on homes and investment

Government's plans for the South East radically overestimate the demand for housing and drastically underestimate the need for infrastructure investment, says the South East England Regional Assembly.

The Assembly has this week agreed a response to Government, opposing key changes that ministers want to make to the South East Plan - a 20 year planning framework for the region.

Assembly Chairman Cllr Paul Carter said:

"There is a clear mismatch between Government's housing ambitions and their lack of commitment to invest in the South East. Without investment in roads, transport, health services, schools, sewerage and water supplies to support new homes we will see a decline in quality of life for both new and existing residents.

"We also need to make Government realise it is unrealistic to increase our annual housebuilding target to a minimum of 33,000 homes a year in the current economic climate.  A minimum target means we can’t plan effectively for the land and infrastructure we need - but when developers won’t build homes because they can’t sell them it calls the whole task into question."

He added:

"Ministers need to listen to the region as we know what is achievable within the current funding and environmental constraints, but they must also be prepared to fund the necessary infrastructure to ensure that existing homes as well as new homes are catered for. We need a reality check on housing delivery during the economic crisis."

The Assembly's full response is available on the South East Plan page.

Government consultation on its proposed changes closes on Friday 24 October 2008.

Contacts

Lesley van Dijk, PR Executive at the Regional Assembly   01483 555223

Heather Bolton, Communications Director at the Regional Assembly 01483 555220

Notes to Editors

For more information on the consultation, see http://gose.limehouse.co.uk/portal

The South East England Regional Assembly

The Assembly is a partnership of councils and communities in the South East region. It was established in January 1999 to give a representative voice to the region, which covers Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East and West Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire and Surrey.

The Assembly is made up of 112 members including elected councillors nominated by the region's local authorities and 37 representatives from other sectors of the community (including business, trades unions, education, housing, health, sports, culture, tourism, faith groups, environmental, community and voluntary organisations) as well as the New Forest National Park Authority.

The Assembly has six roles:

• Regional Planning - preparing and delivering the South East Plan
• Regional Housing - the Regional Housing Board decides housing investment priorities
• Regional Transport - the Regional Transport Board decides transport investment priorities
• Advocacy - pressing the South East's interests in London and Brussels
• Alignment - co-ordinating regional policies and decisions.
• Accountability - scrutinising SEEDA's plans and impact

Our vision is for a distinctive, outward-looking, accessible region of prosperous, sustainable communities, with a high quality of life and environment.

South East Photo Library

The South East England Regional Assembly's photo library MediaStore, gives everyone the chance to access images of issues affecting the region. MediaStore draws on the knowledge of the Assembly to provide you with images from all over the South East.

• regularly updated with photos covering topics from housing to transport to flooding
• easy to access and download
• fully searchable
• a wide variety of high resolution images
• there's no charge for this service, just credit the Assembly when an image is used.

To view images from across the region visit www.southeast-ra-mediastore.co.uk

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