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The South East Plan

What is the South East Plan?
The South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA) is responsible for producing a regional spatial strategy up to 2026. The South East Plan (SEP) is the name SEERA has chosen for this document.

The South East Plan will be a wide-ranging, strategic planning document. It will be a statutory document, replacing current planning guidance (RPG9) and, in due course, the Surrey Structure Plan 2004. Its remit will be wider than RPG9, covering issues such as health and education as well as traditional planning issues such as housing, transport and waste management.

What this means for Surrey Heath
Following a consultation in April 2005, SEERA decided that 28,900 new houses per year will be needed across the region. Of these 2,360 per year will be built in Surrey.

Surrey County Council were then asked to provide advice on how this figure should be distributed across Surrey. To do this they have worked with many local organisations including the district councils.

As part of this work Surrey County Council looked at three different ways or options for allocating the new housing. These options were the subject of public consultation between 19th September and 31st October 2005. The preferred option was to seek to provide all additional housing through development in towns across Surrey. Two alternative options sought to meet part of the housing requirement through extensions to the three regional hubs. The regional transport hubs are at Guildford, Redhill and Woking.

In the preferred options the target for Surrey Heath was shown as 3,740 new dwellings over the 20 years. This would mean building an average of 187 new houses each year.

The Council has objected to this housing figure for Surrey Heath. The reasons for objecting are the overall trend for completions in Surrey Heath is downward, this suggests that the suggested housing rate could not be achieved in the longer term. Also, the housing numbers did not take any account of the limit the Special Protection Area may have, and the failure to identify how the infrastructure and service needs for the Borough arising from the future housing growth would be provided.

Leader of the Council Cllr Moira Gibson, who is also a member of the Regional Planning Committee, said: "Whilst the council recognises that there is a need for some new housing in the borough, it is also concerned that the South East Plan in allocating 187 houses a year to Surrey Heath has failed to consider the environmental impact of this allocation, especially in the light of the EU Birds Directive, or what infrastructure there will be to support it."

She added: "The Council is also increasingly concerned about emerging water quality issues. The current drought orders in the East of Surrey cast into doubt the ability of the area to accommodate the level of new housing. For these reasons the Council will be objecting to the plan."

View more information on the Special Protection Area.

 

What Next?
The report of the panel was submitted to the Secretary of State in August 2007. The government is now expected to produce a final document in July 2008.

Further Information
More information on the SEP is available on the on the SEERA website Opens in a new window.

Under the new planning system the Borough Council will need to prepare the Local Development Framework in general conformity with the SEP.