South East England Regional Assembly  

Berkeley House  Cross Lanes  Guildford  GU1 1UN

The South East England Regional Assembly is one of eight set up by Peter Mandelson in 1998. 

As the map shows, the region stretches from Dover in the east to the Isle of Wight in the south west and north to Milton Keynes.  It wraps round London and , when taken with Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, forms part of the world city-region that is London.

The South East Region is the power house of Great Britain's economy.  In 2005/06, it contributed £15 billion net to the Exchequer; only two other regions made a positive contribution and they were London (£9 billion) and the East of England Region (£5 billion). 

The membership of the Assembly comprises 112 people:  They are 74 councillors appointed by the 74 councils in the South East plus 34 representatives of economic, environmental and social interests, three town/parish councillors and one representative from the New Forest National Park.

The Assembly has three functions:

Regional assemblies were John Prescott's vision and their nemesis came in the failure of the North East Referendum.  It is not altogether surprising that the Brown government has announced the abolition of regional assemblies in 2010 at which time their planning powers will have been transferred to the wholly unelected regional development agencies.  This is part of this government's obsession with building huge numbers of homes - particularly in the South East - and with placing economic growth above the social and environmental needs of the population.

I served as Chairman of the Regional Planning Committee from July 2002 to July 2005 and was elected as Chairman of the Regional Assembly in July 2005 and then returned, unopposed in 2006 and 2007.  Having served for three years, I stood down in July 2008.  I continue to serve on the Executive Committee.

The Conservative Group on the Assembly has an absolute majority.  Although our Party has always been committed to the abolition of regional assemblies and, indeed, to regions, we have taken the pragmatic view that we should participate in them and seek to make them effective while they exist.

The most important single output of the Assembly has been the South East Plan which is a planning blueprint for the economic, environmental and social well-being of the South East and its residents.