East of England Plan

HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING CABINET PANEL

TUESDAY 27 APRIL2010 AT 10.00 AM

EAST OF ENGLAND PLAN - UPDATE

Report of the Director of Environment and Commercial Services

Author: Jon TileyTel: 01992 556292

Executive Member: Derrick Ashley, Environment, Planning and Waste

1.Purpose of report

1.1To update Members on progress of the Review of the East of England Plan and the new arrangements for regional planning resulting from the Local Democracy Economic Development and Construction Act.

2.Summary

2.1On the 12 March 2010, the East of England Regional Assembly agreed to submit the draft review of the East of England Plan to the Secretary of State. This report updates Members on the content of the revised plan and sets out what should be the next stage in the Plan revision process.

2.2In addition, new regional planning arrangements come into being from April, based on the provisions of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act. The report summarises the arrangements which have been agreed for the East of England, and which will form the basis for taking the Single Regional Strategy forward.

3.Recommendation

3.1The Panelnotes the contents of this report.

4.Background

The Review of the East of England Plan

4.1Members will recall that between September and November 2009, the East of England Regional Assembly carried out a public consultation on four housing growth scenarios, to inform a Review of the East of England Plan which is to run from 2011 to 2031.

4.2The response of the County Council, together with that of the majority of Districts in Hertfordshire, was to support the lowest of the four housing scenarios ( Scenario 1) but with caveats about adequate infrastructure provision and concerns about whether even this level of growth could be practically delivered.

4.3The public consultation exercise found that the majority of local authorities in the Region held a similar view. The local authorities expressed a variety of concerns about the consequences of attempting to plan for higher numbers, in line with pressure from Central Government, and the hugepractical problems of delivering higher numbers than were already planned for, given the state of the economy and the likely availability of funding additional infrastructure.

4.4In response to this, EERA developed a revised spatial strategy based on an amendment to Scenario 1 housing levels, which further reduced the housing allocation at certain locations in recognition of specific local constraints or issues.

4.5This version of the revised plan was considered by the Regional Planning Panel on 26 February when it was agreed that the Plan be recommended to EERA for submission to the Secretary of State, but with some important caveats regarding infrastructure delivery and conditionality, concerns about the level of the employment growth targets and concerns about water quality issues which were still unresolved.

4.6.On March 10, EERA agreed to accept the Regional Planning Panel’s recommendation and passed the following resolution:-

That the Regional Assembly :-

commends the work so far completed on the Regional Plan Review to 2031, noting the considerable input from local authorities, EEDA, the general public and other stakeholders

endorses the recommendation of the Regional Planning Panel that the outlined spatial strategy be approved as the preferred strategy of the Regional assembly, as the Regional Planning Body; and

authorises the submission of the Plan review to Government, subject to the following fundamental qualifications to be set out in a robust covering letter:

(i) growth is not acceptable without increases in infrastructure capacity and suitable revenue support:

(ii) water supply and quality must be ensured by long term investments in water infrastructure and efficiency measures, informed by a properly resourced programme of detailed water cycle studies that look beyond 2031;

(iii) the job targets are kept under continuous review and refined if necessary, including a further review of commuting assumptions; and

(iv) that Government accepts the underpinning principle of the conditionality approach set out in Policy IMP1 and that further work is undertaken to strengthen that approach.

4.7In terms of the details of the Plan, the overall housing number agreed for the Region for the period 2011 to 2031 was 500,700, and the total for Hertfordshire was 71,300. The table below sets out the full regional allocations and how they differ from Scenario 1.

Draft East of England Plan > 2031 – Housing Growth

Policy Areas / Draft East of England Plan > 2031
Total
2011-2031 / Draft East of England Plan > 2031
Per Annum / Public Consultation
Scenario 1
Total
2011-2031
Bedfordshire and Luton / 64,500 / 3,230 / 64,640
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough / 96,600 / 4,830 / 100,760
Essex, Thurrock and Southend / 124,500 / 6,225 / 132,960
Hertfordshire / 71,300 / 3,570 / 75,460
Norfolk / 79,500 / 3,980 / 83,000
Suffolk / 64,300 / 3,220 / 64,300
East of England / 500,700 / 25,040 / 521,120

4.8Looking specifically at Hertfordshire , the housing distribution now contained in the draft plan is as follows :-

Policy Areas / Draft East of England Plan > 2031
Total
2011-2031 / Draft East of England Plan > 2031
Per Annum / Public Consultation
Scenario 1
Total
2011-2031
Broxbourne / 5,100 / 260 / 5,120
Dacorum / 6,100 / 310 / 6,080
East Hertfordshire1 / 11,000 / 550 / 13,200
Hertsmere / 5,000 / 250 / 5,200
North Hertfordshire2 / 15,800 / 790 / 18,600
St Albans / 7,000 / 350 / 7,000
Stevenage2 / 6,400 / 320 / 6,400
Three Rivers / 4,000 / 200 / 4,000
Watford / 5,100 / 260 / 5,080
Welwyn Hatfield / 5,800 / 290 / 4,780
Hertfordshire / 71,300 / 3,570 / 75,460

Figures for Harlow are for total housing growth including urban extensions in East Hertfordshire and/or Epping Forest. Figures for East Hertfordshire and Epping Forest do not include allowance for any extension to Harlow.
Figures for Stevenage exclude provision for any extension into North Hertfordshire: figures for North Hertfordshire include provision for development related to Stevenage.

4.9Other points of interest from a Hertfordshire perspective are the proposed employment target numbers which have been included in the Plan on the basis of the output from the regional housing and employment model, together with discussions with local authorities. A number of District Councils in Hertfordshire are not content with the figures, which have been generated by EEDA. It is this concern together with similar concerns in Cambridgeshire that have generated the clause in the EERA resolution about employment numbers. The employment targets are as follows:-

Local Authority / Indicative net additional jobs
Broxbourne / 6,200
Dacorum / 16,500
East Hertfordshire / 13,600
Hertsmere / 17,900
North Hertfordshire / 9,000
St Albans / 11,400
Stevenage / 11,400
Three Rivers / 4,300
Watford / 10,700
Welwyn Hatfield / 7,100
Hertfordshire / 108,100

4.10Concerns expressed about water quality issues are related to modelling work carried out to assess the impact of the proposed levels of development to 2031 on water courses, and the ability of foul water treatment facilitiesto deliver water quality in line with the Water Framework Directive. The first drafts of this modelling work appeared to suggest that there was an absolute constraint in the Norwich area and a similar issue at Rye meads. Further work by the Environment Agency and the Water companies has reached the conclusion that the position is manageable up to 2031, but there could be problems beyond that date. This is obviously an area where there will need to be further detailed work to understand the more local impacts of development, together with detailed monitoring of the situation, to ensure that the management of the issue to 2031 is successful.

4.11 Finally, the other major issue from Hertfordshire’s perspective relating to the draft revisions is the fact that in the absence of the Secretary of State’s Repair proposals for the current Regional Plan to 2021, the sub regional strategy for the London Arc West has been left unchanged. At the time of writing this report there is still no indication of when the Repair might be published for consultation, and therefore there remains a “gap” in the Plan in terms of sub regional guidance.

4.12 The Revised Plan will now be submitted to the Secretary of State. Under the 2004 Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act, it would have been the Government’s responsibility to carry out consultation on the Plan and organise an Examination in Public (EIP). The original programme would have seen the EIP taking place in the autumn of 2010. With the enactment of theregional planning provisions of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act (LDEDC Act) from the beginning of April 2010, the responsibility for taking the plan forward at this next stage now rests with the “Responsible Regional Authorities” i.e. EEDA and the Regional Leaders Board. It is therefore anticipated that the Regional Responsible Authorities will meet after April to decide whether to consult on the current version of the Revised Plan, or whether to carry out further technical work, and will then issue a programme for how the Plan will be taken forward.

Future Arrangements for Regional Planning

4.13With the enactment of the LDEDC Act the arrangements for regional planning will change significantly. As members will be aware, the Regional Assembly has now been abolished, with regional strategy matters becoming the joint responsibility of Regional Leaders’ Boards and the Regional Development Agencies. As part of this reform, Regional Spatial Strategies are now to be merged into a Single Regional Strategy, which will also encompass the Regional Economic Strategy.

4.14It has been left to each Region to determine the exact form of arrangements for the composition of Leaders’ Boards and the architecture to support strategy making. In the East of England the Leaders’ Board comprises the directly elected Mayors and Council leaders from all 52 local authorities and a representative of the Broads Authority. When it is considering Leaders Board Business, it operates as the East of England Local Government Association (EELGA), without a Broads Authority representative.

4.15The Single Regional Strategy, has to be jointly prepared by the Responsible Regional Authorities, which are EEDA and the Regional Leaders’ Board. In the event that there is disagreement on the Strategy then responsibility for progressing the Strategy reverts to the Regional Development Agency.

4.16In the East of England ,the Single Regional Strategy will be steered by a Regional Strategy Board, made up of 30 members as follows :-

EELGA (16 ) - one from each of the strategic authorities (counties and unitaries) and one to represent the combined districts within each county of the remaining two-tier areas.

(5 counties: Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk) :6 unitaries: (Bedford Borough, Central Bedfordshire, Luton, Peterborough,Southend, Thurrock))

EEDA (8)
Key delivery agencies (4) (NHS, Homes and Communities Agency, EA, Natural England)
Stakeholders (2)
GO-East as observer

Only the EELGA and EEDA representatives will have voting rights at the Regional Strategy Board, and to get the balance required by the LDEDC Act, each EEDA representative will have 2 votes, and the meeting will be chaired by EEDA.

4.17To support the Regional Strategy Board, which it is anticipated will operate as a high level strategic group, there will be five supporting Development and Implementation Boards or DIBs covering a range of thematic areas. The areas covered by each DIB are Housing and Regeneration; Transport and Infrastructure; Business Innovation and Skills; Social and Communityand Environment and Resources. However EELGA is currently looking at maintaining a number of existing standing committees to have continuity in policy areas not directly covered by the Single Regional Strategy. An indicative structure diagram is attached at Appendix 1.

4.18It is envisaged that the Regional Planning Panel’s work will be taken forward in future by the Regional Strategy Board itself. Its is therefore not clear whether the Panel will continue , although there would appear to be a role to possibly advise EELGA representatives on spatial planning matters are being considered at the Regional Strategy Board.

4.19Similarly, at present, the future of the joint officer support groups such as the Regional Planning Advisory Group are not completely clear. However, it is likely that there will remain a need for some kind of joint officer forum on planning, transportation and waste and minerals planning. The next meeting of the EELGA will consider these matters.

5.Financial Implications

5.1There are no financial implications related to this information report. Officer support for the proposed new regional arrangements will continue to be met from existing budget provisions.

Appendix 1

10 Item 6 East of England Plan Update 1