South East Forum For Sustainability

Ranging from the two National Parks to the seven Local Enterprise Partnerships there are a wealth of organisations in the South Eastern part of England that cross over various Local Authority areas. A full breakdown can be found in the document SE England Bodies.

Back in July and again a week ago SEFS sent along a representative to the South East England Councils (SEEC) all member meetings (papers for the SEEC All Member meetings can be found here along with the dates for future meetings):

Update from SEEC All Member Meeting 8th November 2011

If you were familiar with the make-up of the old Regional Assembly, the faces at the SEEC meeting look pretty similar, apart from the lack of stakeholders. Some old SEERA staff members have also transferred over (Nick Wolfenden and Heather Bolton). SEEC is chaired by Paul Carter (KCC)

- a key issue from the debate was that LA’s themselves are not clear whether they or LEP’s will be the ones Govt will listen to most. There is a sense that LEP’s definitely seem to have influence, but in the margins of the meeting the view was they are all different, all over-stretched (eg the Kent/Essex and E. Sussex LEP has 40 Board members so decision making difficult) and the environment is not figuring highly.

The meeting agenda was more a series of presentations not all relevant to the environment (eg broadband and in-migration impacts). The economy dominated and many of the familiar arguments about why there as a need to invest in the SE. Key theme of the day was infrastructure (but not of  the green variety).

Infrastructure Planning Commission
-       80% of current caseload = energy projects
-       In the SE there are 3 offshore windfarms, 1 submitted (Kentish Flats)
-       IPC will be abolished in April via Localism Bill – needs a smooth transition

Transport
-       Emphasised the “big” investment in the SE eg Crossrail, Hindhead, Reading station
-       Justine Greening the new Minister wants to continue devolving decisions but wants time to think about how to do this
-       David Robertson (Oxon cllr) is the SEEC Transport Convener. He made a short presentation arguing for the need for agreed SE priorities rather each Local Authority fighting its own corner. He emphasised the good job done by the previous RTB. Peter Lee said the shrunken DfT would also value groups of LA’s coming together. But the unknown question for LA’s is whether Government wants groups of LAs to come together or groups of LEPs. Paul Carter wondered if the groups of LEPs might be the key influencers

EU
-      There was concern that the new EU Energy Efficiency Directive  would put a big financial burden on LA’s by making energy efficiency the primary consideration in procurement decisions and requiring a significant % annual spend on refurbishing buildings

Revoking the SE Plan
-  The SEA of the Revocation of the SE Plan is out for consultation but SEEC are not looking to respond 

Update from the SEEC AGM – 13th July

Main points:

• Paul Carter was re-elected unopposed as chair. Keith House (Eastleigh) and Tony Page (Reading) were selected for deputy chair.
• Ex-oficio roles on the Executive Committee: Planning and Housing went to Moira Gibson (Surrey Heath); Transport went to David Robertson (Oxon); Economic Development & Skills went to Martin Tett (Bucks CC).
• Probably the biggest issue for SEEC was resources for local government and the bias against the South East in terms of finance from central government. Particularly in light of the upcoming planning framework, which was acknowledged to be much more pro-development, it was seen as crucial to lobby for appropriate resources to pay for necessary infrastructure. It was also noted that deprivation in the South East increased nearly 7 percent between 2007 and 2010.
• On European priorities: the group agreed on the three recommendations from the paper- sharing information about European funding opportunities, pursuing opportunities to influence funding programs from the policy side, and continuing the task and finish group looking at this. Paul Carter noted that he couldn’t identify any examples of where EU funding had been useful or beneficial to businesses or communities.
• Ian Coates of BIS Local came along to talk about the new BIS setup; he covers the South East and South West. The purpose is to form a bridge between Whitehall and the real world (using local knowledge to influence policy), help businesses respond to economic shocks, and identify and realize opportunities. The offices have a coordnating and information-sharing role; they do not have any funding and there are no performance measures.
• There was a feeling that there are too many groupings and partnerships (SEEC and SESL, for instance). An effort will be made to rationalize, and working with Andrew Povey (Surrey, head of SESL) on this.

 The business plan will be circulated in September with more detail, but main components are:
- More money for the South East
- Data Dashboard
- EU work
- Transport (strategic issues. Also, SESL does a lot on this)
- Migration
- Efficiency.

Other priorities raised include:
- Infrastructure summit
- Economy, relationships with the LEPs
- New homes bonus one year on
- Localism Bill
- Other issues in legislation that SEEC would like to have a collective voice on
- Relationship with London.