RSS East Of England Plan - Broads Authority

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Section 3 Spatial Strategy
Section 3
Spatial Strategy
3.1 Policies SS1 to SS9 set out the core strategy and overall framework for development in the region and complement
national planning policy statements.
3.2 RSS should not normally repeat national policy. However, national policies on sustainable development, including such
fundamentals as climate change and what makes for a genuinely sustainable community, are set out in several
documents. Policy SS1 draws key principles together by referring to them in a first over-arching policy, with has the
weight of statutory development plan policy.
3.3 One of the key ambitions of this RSS is to allow the region to accommodate higher levels of growth in sustainable ways. It
does this in a number of ways including by focusing development on a group of significant urban areas, termed Key
Centres for Development and Change in Policy SS3, together with the policies for the individual centres and through the
approach to selective green belt reviews in Policy SS7.
3.4 A group of factors – the most recent household projections, the continued deterioration in housing affordability, the
proximity to London, and the region’s economic potential suggest that the rate of growth needs to both increase further
and continue after 2021. This will be addressed through the approach in Policy H1, the early review of this RSS, Policy
IMP3, and through the role of core strategy Development Plan Documents in informing that review. However, this RSS
has a key role in putting in place a strategy which promotes, rather than constrains, medium and longer term growth.
Growth Areas, Growth Points and Ecotowns
3.5 The Sustainable Communities Plan was published in 2003 and is kept under regular review. It sets out overall aims for the
four Growth Areas which were first proposed in the former Regional Planning Guidance for the South East (RPG9, 2001).
The three largest Growth Areas include substantial areas within the East of England:
• Thames Gateway, a regeneration area of national importance which includes part of South Essex (Essex Thames
Gateway);
• Milton Keynes – South Midlands, which includes Luton and Bedfordshire; and
• London-Stansted-Cambridge.
3.6 The policy has subsequently evolved. London-Stansted-Cambridge was extended to include Peterborough and
Stevenage and renamed London-Stansted-Cambridge-Peterborough. Haven Gateway, Norwich and Thetford were
identified as New Growth Points in October 2006. In July 2007 developers and local authorities were invited to propose
schemes for eco-towns, new settlements of 5-20,000 homes with the whole settlement able to reach zero carbon
standards. Through the consultation paper, ‘Ecotowns Living a greener future’, April 2008 the Government has identified
a shortlist of 15 locations for Ecotowns, four of which are in the East of England. The paper explains the process for
identifying the final list of locations before the end of 2008.
3.7 The growth areas and new growth points provide opportunities to capitalise on existing drivers of growth, notably London,
Cambridge and the major ports and airports, and to use growth as a catalyst to address regeneration needs. It has never
been the intention that the growth areas would be continuous corridors of development. Rather, they are broad areas
based on key movement corridors within which there are a number of opportunities focussed on urban areas to deliver