East of England Plan 2001-2021
East of England Plan 2001 - 2021
The current Regional Spatial Strategy for the region is the East of England Plan, it covers the period 2001 to 2021.
It was published in May 2008 and is available on the Government Office website but is also available here for convenience:
East of England Plan 2001-2021 (3.5MB - PDF)
Published: May 2008
A High Court hearing in May 2009, found in favour of the legal challenge brough by Hertfordshire County Council and St Albans District Council against the Government on aspects of the Plan relating to development in the Green Belt around the towns of Hemel Hempstead, Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield. The successful legal challenge only related to a small part of the Plan and does not affect its review process. Further informaition on how the Government intends to 'repair' the Plan can be found on the Government Office website.
EERA was responsible for the development of the East of England Plan to its draft stage. The Government was then responsible for the final stages of the Plan’s development up to publication.
The Plan has a key role in contributing to the sustainable development of the region. It sets out policies which address the needs of the region and key sub-regions. These policies provide a development framework for the next 15 to 20 years that will influence the quality of life, the character of places and how they function, and informs other strategies and plans. A major feature of the Plan is that it identifies the significant investment that will be needed in social, environmental, economic and transport facilities ('infrastructure') if it is to achieve its desired results. That investment will come from a variety of sources, including central and local government funding and private developer funding.
EERA is responsible for developing an implementation and monitoring framework for the Plan. EERA is also working with EEDA to develop a joint implementation plan to deliver the common aspects of the Regional Spatial Strategy and the Regional Economic Strategy.
The strategic planning framework for Bedfordshire is contained in the East of England Plan and the Milton Keynes South Midlands Sub Regional Strategy, which provides the sub-regional policy framework for the Bedfordshire growth towns of Bedford, including northern Marston Vale, and Luton/Dunstable/Houghton Regis with Leighton Linslade. Further details are available on the website of the Government Office for the East Midlands to the right of this page.
Each stage of the development of the East of England Plan is contained in the history of the Plan's development link below.