Key Themes in the Plan

The South East Plan is the new regional spatial strategy for the South East region. It will replace current regional planning guidance (RPG).

Although it is a new document, it will build on many elements of existing guidance, updating them and extending them to cover the period through to 2026. Like RPG9, the South East Plan will continue to:

• concentrate development in urban areas
• focus on the use of brownfield land
• promote regeneration, renewal and social inclusion
• encourage the more sustainable management of resources
• encourage a reduction in the reliance on the private car for some forms of travel.

However, the South East Plan will also have a wider remit than current guidance, for example, looking at how planning policy can help improve health, education and social inclusion in the region.

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Themes identified from earlier consultation work are:

Sustainable Development

There is now a wide understanding that economic, social and environmental issues are inextricably linked, and linked with the overall management and conservation of natural resources. Substantial future development will be needed in the region, but it needs to be undertaken more sensitively and with significantly less resource consumption than in the past. We need to reduce waste, throw away fewer resources and recycle/re-use more. We need to use cleaner and cleverer technology to reduce the impact of both development and its use. Sustainable Development is a central theme of the Plan and is articulated more fully in the section on the Integrated Regional Framework (Part B) and in the Appraisal section.

Global Competition

The South East is competing on an international stage, where the interaction of the world economy is rapidly increasing. The economic development of Third World countries, most notably China and India, is already having a marked effect on competitiveness and patterns of trade. All the evidence the Assembly has drawn together indicates that these trends will grow. Indeed our recent research work on ‘offshoring’ of jobs suggests that in some circumstances this may accelerate with significant consequences. Nearer to home the enlargement of the European Union may particularly affect traditional sectors like agriculture and manufacturing.

Climate Change

In the past few years a substantial body of evidence has pointed to an acceleration in climate change caused by human influence. The pace and form of that change is rather more open for debate but the significance of the issue is now acknowledged everywhere except in Australia and America. The South East region is sensitive to the effects of climate change.

Over the past century average temperature has risen by 0.5°C and summer rainfall has decreased. Around the region’s coastline the sea level is rising, threatening important coastal habitats and increasing the risk of flooding. At the same time, a land tilt of about six millimetres a year in the South East, will also influence the relative rise in sea-level. Generally, greater climate changes are predicted whereby it will be warmer all year round, winters will be wetter and summers much drier. Weather extremes – such as the storms that caused the great floods on the eastern coastline in 1953, the storm of 1987 and the unusually warm summer of 1995 – may occur more frequently in the 21st century.

Attention needs to be given to planning new developments so as to avoid areas with a tendency to flood and to take account of the availability of water resources. Climate change could also have other implications, for example, the need to anticipate deterioration of built structures, to avoid disruption to transport and power supplies or changes in cropping patterns – including the crops needed for renewable energy – and the associated development required for processing and storage.

European Perspective

In a number of policy areas, notably waste, water and agriculture, the policies and legislation of the European Union have a growing and significant influence on development in the region. The reform of the Common Agricultural Policy and new demanding directives on waste and water are already having an impact. Over the course of the Plan, it is likely that this influence will grow on other issues such as transport and aviation, and environmental standards. The advent of the accession countries will further reduce the region’s already limited access to financial assistance from European programmes for social and economic restructuring.

Resource Use

It is a corollary of the emphasis on sustainable development and concerns about climate change that the Plan will need to embody a significant emphasis on reduced resource use. Although this particularly applies to resources such as water and waste, it also has a more general application. Similarly, although there will need to be an emphasis on higher standards of efficiency in new development, the same message also needs to be vigorously pursued in respect of existing development. Significant changes in performance will be required and this will also probably need significant changes in public attitude and behaviour. Fortunately, our recent surveys of public opinion suggested that the public agree the need for such changes and show some willingness to adapt.

Technological Changes

As mentioned in respect of futures, the scale of some technological change will be very substantial over the Plan period. The difficulty is to be sure which technologies. Not many people, for example, forecast the revolution caused by mobile phones, while rather more saw the potential of laptop computers. It does, however, seem highly likely that the further development of e-communication and commerce will affect lifestyles, working patterns and communication on a significant scale.

Themes originally identified from earlier consultation work with stakeholders are available here.

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