Regional Planning

At the next layer down from National, the South East Plan has a significant role in determining planning policy. Whilst largely put together by the South East Regional Assembly, this body was dissolved in March 2009 soon after the public consultation on the plan (whilst it was objecting to government amendments to the Plan which radically overestimated an annual 33,000 new home requirement).

As of 1 April 2009, responsibility for regional planning and the production of a new Single Regional Strategy rests with the South East England Partnership Board, which is supported by staff from the former Assembly and from South East England Development Agency (SEEDA).

The Secretary of State (John Prescott) published the South East Plan in May 2009, eventually through the Government Office of the South East. It sets out a series of Core Policies for the region and it was the changes in this document which handed down the widely-felt nonsensical central housing allocation targets to each local authority. A key theme is that the South East is the economic power-house of the country, and so further economic development should be induced in the region. Despite highlighting that 'sustainable natural resource management is a key theme of the Plan' many feel that these policies are unreaslitic in light of the economic development proposals, and that environmental issues were paid lip service. The Environment Agency's response to the South East Plan was largely ignored (SMEISE report).

Policies included in the South East Plan take precedence over locally produced plans if there is a conflict.

In particular, Section 7 (p55) and Policy H1 deals with housing allocations to each local authority.

Section 11 deals with Countryside and Landscape (Policy C3 deals with AONB, C4 with local landscape, C5 with the rural-urban fringe - with ten key functions of this).