Government Offices work with regional partners to develop, implement and monitor ‘Regional Spatial Strategies,’ which set out Government’s planning and transport policy for each region for a 15-20 year period. The strategies provide frameworks for determining planning applications, as well as for preparing both Local Development Documents and Local Transport Plans.
More information on the national picture
The Proposed Changes
The Secretary of State published Proposed Changes to the draft Regional Spatial Strategy on 17 July 2008. Consultation on the changes ended on 24 October 2008. All documents remain available for viewing through the consultation portal at: http://gose.limehouse.co.uk/portal
The Secretary of State will now be considering all responses and hope to publish the final version of the South East Plan in the New Year.
Following receipt of the Panel Report, the Government Office raised a number of factual inconsistencies with the Panel. A statement and their response can be found on the Report page.
Further details of the process so far and the key examination documents are available through the Examination in Public website.
Once the Regional Spatial Strategy for the South East is approved by Government it will replace Regional Planning Guidance for the South East (RPG9). It will form a statutory document with which local authority development plans will need to conform.
Advice on the process for revising the Regional Spatial Strategy is set out in national guidance - Planning Policy Statement 11.
Draft Regional Spatial Strategy - Background
The South East Regional Assembly formally submitted the draft Regional Spatial Strategy (The South East Plan) to Government on 31 March 2006.
Further details and a full copy of the draft plan are available through the Assembly website. The Government's response is available below.
Consultation on the draft plan ended 23 June 2006, and the Examination in Public ran from 27 November 2006 to 30 March 2007.
The Panel, chaired by Corinne Swain, OBE, MA (Cantb), MPhil, FRTPI, was appointed to carry out independent testing of the draft plan. The Report of the Examination in Public Independent Panel was published on 29 August 2007.
RPG9
Current RPG9 covers the period up to 2016 and was published in March 2001. It should be read in conjunction with the following amended chapters:
- Chapter 9 – Regional Transport Strategy
- Chapter 10 (part) – Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Chapter 10 (part) - Waste
- Chapter 11 - Minerals
- Chapter 12 – Ashford Growth Area
- Chapter 14 – Tourism and Related Sport and Recreation
- Milton Keynes & South Midlands Sub-Regional Growth Strategy
These chapters were reissued after consultation and public examination.
