Wider South East

The Mayor, the East of England Local Government Association (EELGA) and South East England Councils (SEEC) have been investigating options for more effective collaboration of strategic policy and infrastructure investment across their three areas. This led to a Wider South East Summit in March 2015. All 156 authorities within the Wider South East were invited to the Summit and over 100 attended. Issues which required more effective strategic coordination were discussed and possible arrangements to support this. Options for the arrangements were then addressed through a series of Roundtables.

The full notes of the first Summit are available to download.

A second Wider South East Summit was held on 11 December 2015. The Leaders of local authorities within the Wider South East and the Local Enterprise Partnerships discussed the best way forward and shaped the priority areas of work.

The papers of the second Summit are available to download below.

• Invitation to second Summit
• Summit agenda
• Recommendations paper – to guide through the Summit agenda
• Annex 1 - Overview of emerging consensus from Wider South East meetings during the Summer (background)
• Annex 2 – Overview of work towards a common understanding of technical evidence to support our spatial plans (see agenda item 3b)
• Annex 3 – Draft recommendations by the Outer London Commission on Barriers to Housing Delivery (see agenda item 3c)
• Presentation slides
• Wider South East 2nd Summit notes

The agenda, table questions and notes from the third summit can be downloaded below.

• Third Summit agenda and table questions
• WSE 3rd Summit Dec 2016 - Presentation
• WSE 3rd Summit Dec 2016 - Notes

The agenda, conclusions, list of participants and presentation slides can be downloaded below.

Fourth Wider South East Summit agenda and papers

Fifth Summit 2019

The agenda, notes, list of participants and presentation can be downloaded below.

• read the agenda and list of participants
• view the presentation
• read the notes

At the request of Councillors at the Summit, political Roundtables were arranged in Summer 2015 to help shape future political co-operation arrangements, giving as many local authorities and LEPs as possible the opportunity to discuss common strategic concerns and how best to address them.

The focus was to help agree the preferred political arrangements for issues to be raised and addressed. The Leaders of all local authorities within the Wider South East and the LEPs were invited by SEEC/EELGA. Each Roundtable gave participants the chance to discuss key strategic matters. Roundtables were held on:

Papers and notes of the Roundtables are available to download below. 

• Roundatbles discussion paper - July - September 2015
• Annex 1 - detailed roundtable discussion paper
• Annex 2 - refining the scope and purposes of political engagement
• 10 July 2015 roundtable notes
• 4 September 2015 roundtable notes
• 18 September 2015 roundtable notes

Outcomes shaped proposals for agreement at a second Wider South East Summit which was held on 11 December 2015, the main aim of which was to establish political arrangements to ensure effective Wider South East engagement (see Summits above).

The Mayor of London has also asked his Outer London Commission (OLC) to investigate, from a London perspective, more effective arrangements for coordinating strategic policy and investment across the Wider South East. The Commission's report is available to download. This investigation and the Commission’s recommendations on the Wider South East relations have informed the second Summit.

As a result of these discussions, it was agreed to set up a small Political Steering Group to oversee the emerging discussions. Initially it consisted of the Chair and Deputy Chairs of EELGA and SEEC as well as the Deputy Mayor of London for Planning. It met on 6 November 2015 at City Hall to discuss the work of the Roundtables and recommendations for the second Summit. The Summit agreed the establishment of a more formal Political Steering Group to initiate, steer and agree strategic collaboration activities across the Wider South East. The Group meets two to three time per year and includes five political representatives from the East of England, South East and London. Membership and Terms of Reference, as well as meeting papers and notes, are available to download below.

• Political Steering Group Terms of Reference
• Political Steering Group 10 March 2016 agenda and papers
• Political Steering Group 10 March 2016 notes
• Political Steering Group 18 July 2016 agenda and papers
• Political Steering Group 18 July 2016 notes
• Political Steering Group 12 Oct 2016 agenda and papers
• Political Steering Group 12 October 2016 notes
• Political Steering Group 31 March 2017 agenda and papers - final
• Political Steering Group 21 July 2017 agenda and papers
• Political Steering Group 21 March 2018 agenda and papers
• Political Steering Group 10 October 2018 agenda and papers
• Political Steering Group 8 March 2019 agenda and papers
• Political Steering Group 9 September 2019 agenda and papers

Letters to Government

• Unlocking unimplemented Housing Capacity – joint letter to Secretary of State
• Unlocking unimplemented Housing Capacity - 2nd joint letter to Secretary of State
• Joint Housing White Paper consultation response April 2017
• Unlocking unimplemented Housing Capacity joint follow up letter to Secretary of State
• Developing transport infrastructure - joint letter to Secretary of State
• Letter to National Infrastructure Commission September 2017
• Joint Budget 2017 Submission September 2017
• Planning Reform - supporting the High Street - joint letter to Kit Malthouse MP - March 2019

In October 2012 the Mayor of London published a discussion paper which explored options for future cross-boundary work on strategic planning for London and the Wider South East. The discussion paper will be available to download. During 2013 he also held two well-attended officer workshops with representatives from planning authorities across the Wider South East to discuss relevant strategic planning issues.

As a result of these discussions, a working group of officers was established to explore strategic planning issues and examine the mechanisms for ongoing co-ordination and co-operation. This group came to be known as the Strategic Spatial Planning Officer Liaison Group (SSPOLG) and has focused mainly on housing, infrastructure and demography. The Group is also supporting the Member level Roundtables and Summits (see above).

Papers of the early working group and SSPOLG meetings will be available to download below.

• Workshop on cross-boundary co-operation on strategic planning for London and the wider metropolitan area - 22 March 2013
• GLA working group on strategic spatial planning co-ordination - 18 October 2013
• Housing and demography in the Wider South East - informal discussion - 25 October 2013
• GLA working group on strategic spatial planning co-ordination - 6 December 2013
• SSPOLG - 7 March 2014
• SSPOLG - 6 June 2014
• SSPOLG - 12 November 2014
• SSPOLG - 30 January 2015
• SSPOLG - 5 May 2015
• SSPOLG - 26 June 2015
• SSPOLG - 2 October 2015
• SSPOLG - 30 November 2015
• SSPOLG – 5 February 2016

 New Terms of Reference for the Officer Working Group were agreed by the Political Steering Group on 10 March 2016.

• Officer Working Group – 17 June 2016
• Officer Working Group – 9 September 2016
• Officer Working Group – 9 November 2016
• Officer Working Group – 21 February 2017
• Officer Working Group – 19 June 2017
• Officer Working Group - 5 September 2017
• Officer Working Group - 8 December 2017
• Officer Working Group - 25 June 2018
• Officer Working Group – 13 September 2018
• Officer Working Group - 17 June 2019

The Mayor has made available strategic data on demography and related key issues with officer colleagues within the Wider South East. The most up-to-date GLA datasets and pieces of research are available below.

• The GLA 2016-based population and household projections are now the first GLA projections to include data for all local authorities in England and national data for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This explanatory note – developed for authorities within the Wider South East outside London - provides a brief overview of the rationale for the expansion of the GLA model beyond the London boundary, and a comparison of some model results for the South East and East of England. The document provides no local authority-specific information, but detailed local authority-level data are available in the model outputs available on the London Datastore: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/projections/. In September 2016 the Centre for Population Change at the University of Southampton were commissioned to undertake an independent review of the GLA model. Their report can be downloaded from https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/projection-methodology-independent-review.
• The LEPs' Overview of the Strategic Economic Plans in the Greater South East (April 2015) focuses on key housing and transport objectives.