South East Forum For Sustainability

The new coalition has hit the ground running and proposed changes are already starting to happen here’s a summary of where we’re at in the South East (we will be discussing this further at our general meeting on 15th June)

Current Situation Relating to Regional Planning

1)     The Partnership Board is being wound up on 31^st July. The Planning Panel meeting scheduled for 7 June and Housing and Regeneration Board meeting scheduled for 9 June have been cancelled.

2) However, a meeting of the Transport Board on 11 June will still take place so local authorities can agree transport investment priorities ahead of a Government spending review in the autumn.

3) Details of whether a final Partnership Board meeting scheduled for 2 July will go ahead or not will be announced soon.

4)  All planning responsibilities will now be devolved to county, unitary and district councils, working within a national framework.

5) But on 16 June, South East England Councils will meet in London to discuss how local authorities will continue to address issues, such as the need for investment in infrastructure, that require cross border cooperation.

6)  SEEDA is in discussion with local authority leaders about the future.

7)  The Regional Stakeholders Conference planned for 2^nd July has been cancelled

8)  As announced in the Queens Speech under the Decentralisation and Localism Bill the Government will:

a) Abolish Regional Spatial Strategies.
b) Return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils.
c) Abolish the Infrastructure Planning Commission and replace it with an efficient and democratically accountable system that provides a fast-track process for major infrastructure projects.
d) Create Local Enterprise Partnerships to replace Regional Development Agencies, described as “joint local authority-business bodies brought forward by local authorities to promote local economic development”

9)    The TCPA has published a document on the future of planning. This raise concerns about the abolition of RSS and what needs to be developed to improve/replace it.

10)  RTPI & POS are calling on the government to rethink its plans to abolish regional planning

11)   However,  Eric Pickles has written to councils advising them that the government intends to rapidly abolish RSS and that “Consequently decisions on housing supply (including the provision of travellers sites) will rest with Local Planning Authorities without the framework of regional numbers and plans. “