House of Commons South East Regional Committee South East England Development Agency and the Regional Economic Strategy First Report of Session 2008-09 Volume II Oral and written evidence Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 14 September 2009 pursuant to Standing Order 137 HC 516-II Published on 23 September 2009 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The South East Regional Committee The South East Regional Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine regional strategies and the work of regional bodies. Current membership Dr Stephen Ladyman MP (Labour, South Thanet) (Chairman) Ms Celia Barlow MP (Labour, Hove) David Lepper MP (Labour, Brighton, Pavilion) Gwyn Prosser MP (Labour, Dover) Mr Andrew Smith MP (Labour, Oxford East) Powers The committee is one of the regional committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/se.cfm. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Sîan Woodward (Clerk), Duma Langton (Inquiry Manager), Leena Mathew (NAO Adviser), Emma Sawyer (Senior Committee Assistant) and Ian Blair (Committee Assistant). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the South East Regional Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 3274; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] Witnesses Monday 11 May 2009 Page Pam Alexander, Jim Brathwaite and Paul Lovejoy, South East England Development Agency Ev 1 Colin Byrne, Sheila Carroll and Jane Vaughan, Government Office for the South East Ev 12 Monday 29 June 2009 Ross McNally, South East Chamber of Commerce Ev 18 Simon Hubbard and Councillor Peter Pragnell, Hastings Borough Council and Graham Marley, Ten Sixty Six Enteprise Ev 23 Harvey Bradshaw, Environment Agency and David Edwards, Homes and Communities Agency Ev 28 Monday 6 July 2009 Jonathan Shaw MP, Regional Minister for the South East, Pam Alexander, South East England Development Agency and Colin Byrne, Government Office for the Ev 33 South East List of written evidence Page 1 Association of South East Colleges Ev 45 2 Council for the Protection of Rural England Ev 46 3 Environment Agency Ev 50 4 HM Government Ev 52 5 Hastings Borough Council Ev 59 6 Homes and Communities Agency Ev 63 7 Kent Police Ev 65 8 Learning and Skills Council (South East) Ev 67 9 Natural England Ev 69 10 Oxford City Council Ev 71 11 Regional Action and Involvement South East Ev 72 12 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (South) Ev 76 13 South East England Development Agency Ev 80 14 Southern & Eastern Regional Trades Union Congress Ev 103 15 Councillor Alec Samuels Ev 105 16 Federation of Small Businesses (South East) Ev 106 17 Engineering Employers Federation Ev 110 18 South East Chambers of Commerce Ev 112 19 Ten Sixty Six Enterprise Ev 112 20 South East Diamonds for Investment & Growth Partnership Ev 115 Processed: 09-09-2009 16:50:52 Page Layout: COENEW [SO] PPSysB Job: 434938 Unit: PAG1 South East Regional Committee: Evidence Ev 1 Oral evidence Taken before the South East Regional Committee on Monday 11 May 2009 Members present: Dr Stephen Ladyman (Chairman) Ms Celia Barlow Gwyn Prosser David Lepper Mr Andrew Smith Witnesses: Pam Alexander, Chief Executive, Jim Brathwaite, Chairman and Paul Lovejoy, Executive Director of Strategy and Communications, South East England Development Agency, gave evidence. Chairman: Welcome to the first public evidence- may moan on the sidelines. Those of a diVerent taking session of the South East Regional Select political persuasion can still be very pleased. I am Committee. Welcome to our guests. Would you like happy with that. to start oV by introducing yourselves? Pam Alexander: One of the things we have seen Jim Brathwaite: I am the Chairman of the South through our work with the Regional Assembly East England Development Agency (SEEDA). which unites us all is our understanding that the Pam Alexander: I am the Chief Executive of South East is both the engine of the UK economy SEEDA. and a hugely diverse region and that we have Paul Lovejoy: I am the Executive Director of something to bring by working together will those of Strategy and Communications at SEEDA. all persuasions in all sectors. I would agree absolutely with what the Chairman said. Clearly Q1 Chairman: It is good to see you all. Thank you sometimes we disappoint those of all complexions as for coming. Thank you for submitting evidence to well. For us the main thing is to get across our focus us. Do you want to start oV by making a statement and ensure that we are working to enable partners as or would you rather just go into questions? well as to support them. Jim Brathwaite: We are happy to go into questions. The only thing I would say is that I am really Q3 Chairman: We will come back to the sub-national delighted to be sitting here in front of some of our review and how you are going to engage with people local MPs. It has been one part of the architecture a little later on. Maybe that just leads us into the where we needed more accountability. It would be question of just how you see your key better if there were more from other parties. As we responsibilities. We know what it says on the brief know, that is not to be. SEEDA is here to serve. and on paper, but what is the role of SEEDA in the South East region? How do you see it might diVer in Q2 Chairman: You will not get any argument from this region from in other regions? us. Maybe that is a place for me to start. I will come Jim Brathwaite: We are the largest region, with over to your responsibilities in the region in just a 8 million people, and we have a very diverse moment. In the evidence we have received there have economy. As Pam has just said, we are the leading clearly been mixed feelings. Some authorities said economy in the UK, the real locomotive. Sometimes that SEEDA is dreadful, they do not like it at all and that is challenged by London because of the City,but they do not want to have anything to do with it. you can see that when the City has a downturn we Others have said that it is a wonderful organisation. still have to keep going. We provide 400,000 people There seems to be a party political split there. How who go into London every day, a very important are you trying to overcome that split? Do you find part of their work force, but our job is to get the that some councils will not have anything to do with economy of the South East. We help with the you and others are only too happy to see you, or are planning; what we are trying to do is to work with even the ones that are publicly antagonistic business organisations to improve their privately helpful? performance, to work with central government to let Jim Brathwaite: I think you have really summed it them know what the South East needs, and to work up. We have 74 diVerent councils in the South East. with our local councils to deliver on the economy. That makes us quite special as a region. We have That is even more important now that local councils district councils, unitary councils and we have are being tasked with making their local economies county councils. We try to be a bridge between our grow. councils and central Government in the things which Pam Alexander: If I may add to that, I would draw the whole country is trying to achieve in terms of the out two diVerences between us and some of the other growth of the economy. We have spent a long time regions. First, we have a very,very,very small budget working with hostile councils who did not want in the context of a very, very large economy. anything to do with regional architecture. But here Therefore, it is really important that we do not just in Kent, for instance, we have been able to work with see ourselves as a bank to support projects, but that councils of all diVerent shapes and sizes to achieve actually we are about working to create partnerships the end. If you look at the results we have been able that draw mainstream funding and, through such to achieve, they are pretty pleased even though they things as the regional funding advice and the money Processed: 09-09-2009 16:50:52 Page Layout: COENEW [E] PPSysB Job: 434938 Unit: PAG1 Ev 2 South East Regional Committee: Evidence 11 May 2009 SEEDA that we draw in from Europe, actually leverage more trick, particularly if you do not have all the tools that public sector and private funds into the work that we are needed. As a comparison, Kent, East Sussex and do. Secondly, because we have such high economic the Isle of Wight have together got around 2.4 activity rates in the South East we are not simply million people, which is about the same size as the looking to create jobs, we are looking to create high- whole north-east region.