The South East Plan - Essay Example

Introduction The Regional Planning document that will be considered is the South East Plan submitted to the government during the month of March inthe year 2006. The Final draft to this document will be submitted two years after the document that will be studied in the latter portions of the essay. There are several issues that have been highlighted in the document. these range from Social and Cultural health issues, Tourism and Sports, Cross cutting policies, Town Centres, economy, Communications and Transport, Housing, Management of built environments, to Waste and Minerals. However, for purposes of this essay, two main issues have been selected and these are; Housing Communication and transport 1) Presentation of key issues How housing is presented in the planning document In the document, there is emphasis on the issue of sustainable housing through provision of adequate housing. It has also been suggested that land should be put to better use. Besides this, the type of housing provided should be appropriate and housing stock should be maximised. (Government Office for the South East, 2006) All the above changes are based on principles like affordable housing, checking on the density and design of houses, checking on the distribution levels of housing and catering for travellers and gypsies. The main issue of concern within the plan is affordable housing. Affordable housing can be defined as the provision of housing through the use of a subsidy obtained from local authorities such that rent will be considerably lower than prevailing market prices. The plan suggests that number and quality of affordable houses should be increased. Why housing is relevant as a main issue The main reason is that there are a number of homeless households in the South East Region. These households need to be catered for in the housing plan. Statistics from the Regional Housing Strategy show that 4.5% of households in the region belong to this category and together they represent a whooping 11% of all the homeless households in England. These facts necessitate a need for immediate action to be taken and this is why housing is relevant as an issue in the plan. (Government Office for the South East, 2005) Housing also needs to be addressed as a main issue because there is a serious need for affordability in this area. Renting and purchasing houses in South East is too expensive; the area is the second most expensive place to rent in England. This poses a serious problem to development in the region because people find themselves living in distant houses. This means that most of their time is spent while commuting. Commuting brings about more carbon wastes, thus contributing to poor air quality and pollution in general. In addition, commuting causes a waste of time and resources that could otherwise have been directed to more productive issues. So generally, lack of proper housing impedes economic growth. (Government Office for the South East, 2005) Besides this, lack of affordable housing causes congestion. This could have serious health implications because there are a number of diseases that can be transmitted when social conditions are not conducive. How transport and communication is presented in the planning document There main issues that need emphasis according to the plan are revision of the region’s airport, need for connectivity of some regions on South East, need to reduce congestion on roads and a need to incorporate sustainability in the transport sector. The proposal to achieve the above needs are based on addressing rural dimensions, managing mobility, tackling management of transport and communication, addressing charges and prices in roads, examining freight, regional spokes and hubs and lastly improvement of airports, gateways and ports. The main issue that has received focus in the plan concerns airports. This is due to the fact that there are four international airports in the South East England and these have severe impacts on economic and social activities in the region and in UK generally. Why communication and transport is relevant as a main issue South East Gateway plays a crucial role in the transport system covering Europe and the UK. Therefore there is nee to ensure that it to ensure that this area is streamlined. Besides this, the transport sector is crucial in ensuring that social and economic activities are made more suitable since South East is largely contributory to the economy of the rest of the country. Transport in South East needs enhancement because there are a number of areas that are poorly connected and should therefore be addressed. Even the regions that are well developed suffer too; they are characterised by increase congestion in their transport networks. This means that people have to waste a lot of time on roads and rails instead of diverting these to activities that could contribute towards economic development. Transportation in Southeast also needs to be addressed because there are growing concerns about the pollution emanating from the aviation industry and other transport sectors. There is therefore a serious need for policies to be incorporated into the issue of pollution. (Government Office for the South East, 2006) Another cause for concern in the transport industry is the fact that there is increased traffic in the aviation region. Any developmental changes in that industry require a serious reorganisation of resources in the ground to be able to accommodate these changes. Despite this, there is a lot of potential that some airports in the region posses. One such airport is the Southampton airport and another is Kent International; they both have latent significance because they can serve as regional airports and reduce strain on international hubs. All these go to show that policy changes need to be made to accommodate all these needs. 2) Explanation and assessment of strategic policy suggested Mechanisms of implementation for the housing policy The South East plan has tried covering all the areas found in the South Eastern region because the challenges of affordable housing cut across the entire region. This approach is a very economical plan because the plan has suggested provision of affordable housing in areas that have that the need for them. This is a good way of implementing the policy because if only a few areas had been chosen, the neediest places would have been left out. Agencies involved in the housing policy Regional Housing Board and Regional Assembly; the purpose of the agencies is to give guidance concerning the relevance of public subsidy within housing development projects. They are also supposed to ascertain financial viability of housing development projects. Housing Corporation; the body will work hand in hand with local authority to come up with guide lines that deal with assessment of housing needs. This is in line with the recommendations made in the policy about a vigorous assessment of demands for housing in the region. This is to ensure that equality is seen in housing. The body also helps concerned parties who may want to gain access to information about the viability of subsidies in their affordable housing development. However, this is done at a fee. So the policy has suggested that the corporation needs to work more in line with stakeholders to ease implementation of the plan. (Government Office for the South East, 2005) Government office for South East England; this is the major local authority of South East. It has the capacity to approve projects that fall under affordable housing and has the mandate to approve public subsidies for such projects. Besides this, the plan suggests that this office should provide guidance on assessment of affordable housing projects. Land owners; these are the people who on land in areas that are in need of affordable housing. They need to work hand in hand with providers of affordable housing to streamline the process. Developers; these are people who initiate projects in areas that are in need of affordable housing. But it should be noted that these projects may not necessarily be houses discussed in the scheme. (Government Office for the South East, 2006) Affordable housing providers; these are the people who initiate affordable housing projects. In the plan, they need to consult local authorities and Housing Corporation to determine feasibility of the project and also to determine viability of public funding in the project. They are also required to engage in small scale housing for rural areas. Appropriateness of policy content in the Housing policy The policy has suggested cross boundary coordination. This is a very thoughtful plan because there are cases when housing markets fall between two local authorities. This means that the local authority that initiated the housing plan will have restrictions and may not fully implement its scheme. Therefore, there is a need for cooperation across boundaries as has been suggested in the South East Plan. The policy suggested by the plan gives details about how affordable housing can be distributed. They have borrowed ideas from a strategy laid out by the Cambridge Centre for Housing and Planning Research. This plan gives suggestions on how affordable housing should be implemented. According to this latter plan there should be rented accommodation taking up 25%, shared ownership should take up 10%-this portion will also be shared by sub-market rent. However, policy content in the plan has not incorporated other housing plans done intended for the South East region; one such plan is the Regional Housing Strategy. The latter strategy was compiled by the Regional Housing Strategy and it talks about the need for increased quality and number of affordable houses. (Government Office for the South East, 2005) In addition, details about implementation of the policy have not been clearly stated. The policy identified very clear principles about what needs to be done in their objectives but this has not been substantiated in the actual policy Mechanism of implementation for the transport and communication policy The plan will be implemented by approval of policies and practices that go hand in hand with its recommendations. This also applies to development documents to be applied locally. Agencies involved in the transport and communication policy Regional Assembly; in the policy, they have indicated that there will be a higher level of pollution and other environmental impacts according to a research that they have done. This is especially in regard to expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick terminals as there were Government recommendations that extra terminals should be built to expand these airports. (DOT, 2003) This group has done research on how developmental activities will be related to emissions in the region. This is the reason why the issue of expansion of Gatwick and Heathrow are not included in the policy. Regional Assembly believe that if it was implemented, then the Government will not be able to achieve the sustainability targets that they had set in the Sustainable Development Strategy applying to the transport and energy sector. Government; the government wrote a publication concerning a plan of action for improvement of airport capacity in the region of South East England. This plan of action is to stretch over a period of thirty years. In the policy, the airport developments have been suggested to follow this path. Appropriateness of policy content in the transport and communication policy The policy stipulates that priority should be given to development of Southampton airport as a regional airport. Similarly, Kent International Airport’s development is also supported in the plan to boost its potential as a regional airport. Development in Gatwick and Heathrow should only be allowed to specific levels because too much development will cause congestion and adverse environmental impacts. The selection of the two regional airports is an appropriate response. This is because it had earlier been researched by Regional Assembly that other regional airports did not have strategic potential. It was appropriate for them to choose the most suitable one as development for all would not be cost effective and environmentally sustainable. (DOT, 2003) The policy also emphasises the need for control of development in those areas named above. This is so that there will be sustainable development in the region i.e. there should development that leads to low environmental impacts. This is also a critical part of development in South-East as it goes hand in hand with government regulations however, it should be noted that there was no mention of what the policy considers as environmentally harmful. It simply pronounces that surface access should be reduced but does not point out how. The policy recommends that there should be a lot of emphasis on policies and practices that facilitate more use of public transport. However examples of these policies and practices have not been stated. Perhaps the biggest deficiency in this policy is the fact that there are very clear objectives identified but plans of implementation are quite vague. It is very difficult for Local authorities, developers and other stakeholders to get some guidance on how to coordinate, manage and create developmental activities. The recommendations in the South East plan for transport could be interpreted in too many ways. There is a serious lack of details that needs to be addressed. (DOT, 2003) Conclusion The South East has Plan has highlighted number of issues for development in the region but housing and transport/communication received special emphasis in the essay. Housing is a relevant issue because houses are too expensive in the region and there are many homeless households. The policy of implementation is centred on provision of affordable housing and talks about distribution. However, one of the omissions of the housing policy is that it does not give details on how theses affordable houses will be designed. It does not include recommendations from other researchers in the region. The second issue was transport and communication. There is need to address this issue because there is congestion the transport system of South East England. There is also a need to revisit the roles played by some regional airports that are strategically placed. The policy suggests some two airports that should be developed and also places limitations on international airports; this is due to environmental concerns. The biggest flaw in the policy is lack of details on policies and practices it is putting forward. (DOT, 2003) Reference Department of Transport (2003) - White Paper: The Future of Air Transport in the United Kingdom   Government Office for the South East (2005) - Regional Housing Strategy 2006-2009 (Consultation Paper) Government Office for the South East (2006) - The Draft South East Plan  Read More