Long-term plans for growth in South East unveiled

A strategy for delivering the new homes, jobs and infrastructure the South East needs until 2026 was announced by the Government last month. It provides a welcome boost to the construction industry and suppliers of eco-friendly building products in particular.

The wide-ranging South East Plan sets out a framework for developing long-term economic growth in the area. It includes encouraging the provision of new job opportunities, as well as tackling the associated increase in demand for housing, transport and school infrastructure. It also features plans for dealing with the effects of climate change, including flood risks, and protecting the region's natural and historic treasures. Top priority, however, remains to increase the supply of housing. The plan aims to deliver 654,000 new homes before 2026.

The population of the South East of England continues to grow more quickly than the national average, with people living longer and increasingly choosing to live alone. Latest statistics show the number of households in the region is likely to increase by some 39,000 each year for the next quarter century. The gap between average house prices and the average wage in the region will also continue to widen. There are currently around 200,000 households in the South East registered for social housing. The plan therefore determines that 35 per cent of all new housing must be affordable.

The focus of new growth will be in an arc from south Hampshire, through Oxford, to Milton Keynes.

The Government intends to use a higher-quality transport infrastructure as a catalyst for growth. Its aim will be to rebalance the system in favour of more sustainable modes of transport, such as public transport, walking and cycling, to both improve the environment and quality of life for local residents. It already claims to have spent £400m more on transport in the area across the last five years.

In launching the plan both Communities Minister Sadiq Khan and Minister for the South East Jonathan Shaw placed great emphasis on the strategy's green credentials. The Government has committed to reducing CO₂ emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, which has resulted in a steady increase in demand for new information on innovative and environmentally friendly building solutions. The 'Green applications, resources; sustainability' section of RIBA Product Selector (Volume2) is particularly popular. As Managing Editor Sue Quirk points out, "The rationale used to create this section was the inclusion of products measured against fairly strict criteria because manufacturers often claim to be producing 'green' or energy efficient products."

Inclusion is limited to:

1. Products with a relatively low overall environmental impact, balancing production and use factors such as energy consumption, resource depletion, pollution, durability, recyclability and safety
2. Natural (organic, plant-based) products
3. Those products that can be assessed against measurable criteria to determine their environmental impact.

Ben Councell, Head of Sales reinforces the point, "It's always nice when people start phoning in! Enquiries from companies wanting to be listed in the 'green' pages of the RIBA Product Selector directory are now fairly common-place. It's got to be one of the most well-thumbed sections among public housing specifiers."

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