Draft RPG14

1
Draft RPG14

• Presentation to EERA
• 5 February 2004

2
What is RPG?

• Spatial Strategy
• Long-range strategic plan
• 20 year horizon
• What is spatial strategy?
• Plan for distribution of future change
• Part of Integrated Regional Strategy
• Not a Regional Spatial Strategy but leaning
  towards future conversion

3
25 Years Ago

• We didnt have
• Mobile phones, internet, satellite TV
• Privatised industries - Rover, coal, steel, BT,
  gas, electricity, rail, still nationalised
• London Docklands, Canary Wharf
• Bio-tech meant brewing
• Concorde had recently started commercial flights
• We still had
• Soviet Union, Berlin Wall

4
Spatial Strategy Issues

• London pressures

• Growth pressures

• Regeneration

• Green Belt

?
?

• Key centres

• Remote rural areas

?

• Other rural areas

• Coastal areas

?
? Airports
5
Regional Issues

• Economic growth and regeneration
• Housing needs
• Transport pressures
• Environmental and Cultural Factors
• Sustainable Communities Plan
• Implementation the infrastructure deficit
• Controlling our own destiny

6
RPG14 Vision

• To develop a more sustainable, prosperous and
  outward-looking region, while respecting its
  diversity, maintaining and enhancing its assets,
  and sustaining and improving the quality of life
  for all people who live in, work in or visit the
  region.

Keynotes

• Our people
• The future

• Quality of life for all
• Quality of the region

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Three Layers of Strategy

• Core Spatial Strategy
• Sub-regional strategies
• Topic-based policies

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Spatial Strategy

• Sustainability
• Regional economy
• Focus on urban areas and town centres
• Priority areas for regeneration
• Transport strategy
• Green Belt
• Rural and environmental issues

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Spatial Strategy

• Generic policies

• Growth areas

• Regeneration areas

?
?

• Key centres

• Southern restraint

• London links

• Airport issues

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RTS Strategic Networks

• Strategic road corridors
• Strategic rail corridors
• Regional Interchange Centres
• Key centres outside EoE

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Sub-Regional Dimensions

• Why sub-regions?
• Enable policies and guidance for particular areas
• Address cross-boundary issues
• Benefits shown by RPG6 and Cambridge Sub-Region
• Redress spatial deficits of existing RPG

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Sub-Regional Approach
Peterborough
Norwich
GY Lowestoft

• Generic

• Cambridge SRS

Cambridge Sub-Region
Milton Keynes South Midlands

• Communities Plan Growth Areas

Haven Gateway
M11 Stansted

• Other Key Sub-Areas

London Arc

• London Arc

Thames Gateway

• Bury St Edmunds and Kings Lynn

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MKSM Studies

• Milton Keynes/South Midlands Study 2002
• Spatial strategy based on 6 towns/urban areas
• 6 Growth Area Studies
• Bedford, Luton/Dunstable
• Milton Keynes
• Aylesbury
• Northampton
• Corby / Kettering / Wellingborough

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MKSM - Timetable
Consultation Summer/Autumn 2003

• Separate timetable, running alongside RPG14
• Leading to its own RPG approval
• Designed to dovetail with RPG14
• Will be re-merged with RPG14 in future review

Public Examination March 2004
Proposed Changes Late 2004
Final Strategy Early 2005
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Economic Development

• Planning for Sustainable Communities
• Economic growth - EERA/EEDA accord
• High growth rate, but
• Inevitable growth
• Planned growth
• Lower than recent growth rates
• Rebalancing growth vs. regeneration areas

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Housing Approach

• Top-down assessment of three sources
• Employment, policy-led needs - RES
• Demographic trends Chelmer Model
• Affordable housing study
• Bottom-up
• County area assessments of housing potential
• Opportunity to influence detail of the spatial
  strategy

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Housing provision the melting pot
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The Barker Report 1

• House building 2001 lowest since WW2
• Volatile market - boom and bust cycles
• Low output constrains economic growth
• Loss of economic welfare
• Contributes to national economic volatility
• Creates affordability problems
• Unequal distribution of resources

19
The Barker Report 2
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Home Truths TCPA Report 1

• Household growth
• Longer life expectancy
• More single people living alone
• International migration
• More housing needed
• 250,000 for next ten years
• Meet past backlogs
• Mostly in wider south-east

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Home Truths TCPA Report 2

• Affordability crisis
• Average UK earning (Nov 2003) 25k
• Only 10 affordable districts in S. England
• Only 7 in East of England
• All in north Cambs, Suffolk, and Norfolk
• Average wage needed in EoE 32k
• EERA AMR confirms widening gap

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Housing remaining issues

• Need for more work in Hertfordshire
• Agree urban capacity
• Agree further capacity
• Test the additional Peterborough proposals
• Investigate the Governments Sustainable
  Communities requirements

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Transport Issues

• Cant build our way out of congestion
• Need to change land-use/transport balance
• Enhance accessibility, not mobility
• Reduce need to travel
• Demand management
• Parking management and restraint
• Shift balance of investment

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Transport Policies

• Managing demand and capacity
• Strategic rail, road and public transport
  networks and accessibility
• Regional Interchange Centres , strategic freight
  and gateways
• Traffic management
• Road user charging
• Parking standards

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Environmental resources

• Landscape, biodiversity and earth heritage
• Woodlands, agriculture, land and soils
• The historic environment
• Renewable energy and energy efficiency
• Water supply, management and drainage
• Waste management strategy
• Minerals/aggregates supply and management

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Culture

• Cultural development
• Strategic facilities
• Tourism
• The arts
• Sporting facilities
• Recreation and natural resources

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Sustainability Appraisal

• Sustainability Appraisal shows that
• RPG14 pursuing sustainable approach
• RES and Sustainable Communities targets score
  well on economic values
• Closer fit with sustainability depends on
  external policy reviews
• Many wider issues are beyond EERA / RPG /
  planning influence

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Implementation Issues
What happens if we set targets too low?

• Will economic pressures go away?

No

• Will demographic pressures go away?

No

• Will affordable housing or key worker needs be
  met?

Unlikely?

• Will we be able to deliver sustainable
  development?

Difficult

• Will we avoid designation of UDCs?

Unlikely?

• Will we secure adequate infrastructure?

Unlikely?
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Implementation

• RPG14 will be contingent on key issues
• Affordable housing
• Infrastructure deficit
• Need for positive implementation
• UDCs, URCs, LLPs with local democratic control
• Need for value capture
• Need for Government funding

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Governments requirements

• Stronger recognition of Communities Plan target
  900 dwellings per year (3¾)
• Focus on London-Stansted-Cambridge corridor
• Extension of corridor to Peterborough
• Infrastructure package to support growth
• Willing to allow EERA until June to advise
• Link to 2004 CSR (July announcement)

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Principles and Criteria

• Further studies must
• Fit with RPG14 spatial strategy and RTS
• Be deliverable
• Be sustainable
• Allow partner/public/stakeholder engagement
• Identify sustainable development location(s)
• Identify strategic infrastructure needs/deficits
• Address broader growth/regeneration needs

32
Conclusions

• RPG14 the product of great collective effort
• Robust but challenging spatial strategy
• Seeks to accommodate developing Government agenda
• Seeks to deliver regional consensus
• Delivery and implementation now critical